Kosovo government’s commission for verification of victims of sexual violence during the war has not yet been established, while the verification of the victims cannot be done without this commission, the paper reports. Sokol Havolli, advisor to Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, told the paper that it is very important to receive the applications initially. According to him, the secretariat for accepting the applications is functional and one cannot say that the process is being delayed. “The commission for the verification of victims of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo is expected to be established soon, since this should come as a result from a public competition for all members of the commission. In order not to delay the process, Prime Minister Isa Mustafa established a temporary commission secretariat, which will accept the applications,” Havolli said.
Meanwhile, Kosovo’s Minister without Portfolio, Edita Tahiri, said she sent a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, urging for an official report in relation to what happened in Kosovo, but according to her, he did not consider the request. “The first letter I sent to the UN representative for sexual violence victims but she had suggested that I address this issue to UNMIK, since according to her, UNMIK deals with this issue. Then I wrote a letter to Ban Ki-moon and requested a meeting to submit a petition for raped women, but I received a response two months ago with the suggestion to contact UNMIK about this issue,” Tahiri said. “The board of this petition will take diplomatic steps to contact all personalities in the world that deal with issues of raped women during wars in order to raise awareness of the UN so when they prepare resolutions on this issue, to also take action. We will also organize an international conference in Kosovo, where we will talk about the purposes of the petition and our efforts to date so Mr. Ban accepts the petition,” Tahiri added.
