The employees of the Basic Prosecutor’s office, now part of a unified Kosovo justice system, are satisfied with the beginning of work, but they have warned about the big backlog of cases, reports Radio Free Europe (RFE).

Chief Prosecutor Shyqyri Syla told RFE that they now have enough space and dignified working conditions which they did not have in Vucitrn, where they were located until now. He said that the new prosecutors adapted well, that they have received literature in Serbian, they have also received their first cases, and according to him the cooperation is good.

-I believe that with our return, with the integration of the prosecutors, situation will be better with regard to combating crime in the north and you will quickly see positive results in that sense, Syla said.

Syla points to the problem of an inadequate number of interpreters, since most cases are in Albanian, which creates small problems, but said that the prosecutors are willing to work.

Judge Milan Bigovic, Head of the Department of the Court of Appeals in Mitrovica, says that on October 27, three days after their appointment in Pristina, they entered the premises of the Court or the Department of Appeals and points out that they haven’t been able to start to work. He explains that the technical conditions have not yet been met, there is a lack of computers, no IT network, and lack of inventory which impedes the proper functioning and the judges were not able to take over the cases.

-We have not taken over the cases yet…When will it happen, I don’t really know.

Bigovic points out that only technical condition are not fulfilled. In the administration there is 12 Serbian administrative staff and there should be four or five Albanian, but this is not yet determined. Bigovic said that that the biggest challenge in their work is a huge number of cases, especially the civic cases, because the court did not work for years.

The President of the Basic Court, Nikola Kabasic was not available to comment on the challenges related to the beginning of the work of an integrated judiciary, reports RFE.