There is no certain answer to the question if the Special Court would invite Hashim Thaci, neither in Pristina nor in Belgrade as first indictments, according to speculations, are expected in the next couple of months, Serbian national broadcaster RTS reports on its website.
An assumption is that the focus of prosecution would be on command responsibility.
“That is why the organizational structure of the KLA was important to them, and we handed over complete documentation with evidences. Certainly the basis for the work of Specialized Chambers is Dick Marty’s report, which places focus on Drenica group, headed by Hashim Thaci,” Chairperson of the Serbian Assembly Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, Milovan Drecun told RTS.
Belgrade lawyer, Slobodan Zecevic, registered as victims’ representative said that based on what was written in the law, the court would deal with crimes committed before, during and after the conflict in Kosovo, covering the period from 1998 to 2000, supposing it is about crimes against international humanitarian law and war crimes.
Drecun sees threats coming from Pristina that first arrests would again activate KLA as a “threat primarily directed toward potential witnesses, mostly of Albanian nationality to intimidate them, to make them aware different things might happen to them, that there would be destabilization and even liquidation of witnesses is possible”.
Intimidations and even killing of witnesses marked processes before the Hague Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, RTS further reports. These processes ended with the acquittal of Ramush Haradinaj, Fatmir Limaj, Isak Musliu under the charges that they have committed crimes against Albanians and Serbs in 1998, while the only convicted, former guard in KLA camp, was released after he served one third of his sentence.
The justice for the Serb victims, that the Hague Tribunal did not bring, is now expected from this court, RTS reported.
“Whether that would happen or not, would mainly depend on the results of the court. I hope that this time we would get some sort of satisfaction for the victims of the Serb people,” Zecevic told RTS.
