Although the new Kosovo Assembly Speaker, Kadri Veseli, was one of the leading figures of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), he said that he will put to vote the draft law on establishment of the special court. This, according to Veseli, will be done to clear all suspicions one the KLA just war.

The British Ambassador to Kosovo, Ian Cliff, said today that the biggest challenge for the new government in Pristina will be the establishment of the Special Court that will address allegations of war crimes committed in Kosovo. During a conference organized by the Pristina-based non-governmental organization FOL [Speak Up], Cliff said that as representative of the United Kingdom he would assist local authorities in the establishment of the court. Cliff said that he was pleased that Kosovo managed to form the new institutions without international intervention.

Who is responsible for the fact that even after 15 years there are no results in the prosecution of those responsible for crimes against the Serbs and members of other national communities in Kosovo, including Albanians who are not supporting the KLA?

Some international officials in Kosovo are categorically against early elections. International sources told Gazeta Blic that there are two reasons why they think new elections are not necessary. “We could face the same situation again; the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and other parties of the bloc might not reach a pre-election agreement and the PDK would be the winning party again. This is why new elections might not be productive,” the source said.

Families of Missing and Kidnapped Serbs from Kosovo believe that the Special Tribunal for Crimes of the KLA, whose formation was announced, is last chance to shed light on their fate.

Silvana Marinkovic is looking for her husband Goran. She is hoping that the investigation will finally begin and the fate of the missing and kidnapped will be solved and the perpetrators of these crimes will finally be arrested and punished.

She warns that in many cases there is evidence of the perpetrators and that although nothing has been done.

Anyone who has blood on his hands, and there is evidence that he committed a crime should be found on the dock before the future tribunal for crimes of the KLA in Kosovo since 1998 until 2000, says Serbian Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor Bruno Vekarić.

Preparations are underway in The Hague for the establishment of the special court of Kosovo. Anonymous Dutch officials said they are preparing to manage the unusual case of establishing the court of an independent state in their territory, although the court will function according to Kosovo laws. The Netherlands will amend some of its legislation to facilitate “the import of the special court of Kosovo”. After the formation of the assembly and the government, Pristina too is expected to amend several laws that will help create the special court and make it functional.

The special court for Kosovo will take some time to become completely functional. The main problem will be the court’s chamber in Netherlands, which according to government officials there, will take at least one year to be established. KTV quotes its sources in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that the United States and the European Union asked the Netherlands to assist on the matter. The establishment of the chamber however will need to be adopted by the Dutch parliament and this is expected to take a year.