In his first interview since appointed chief prosecutor of the new Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, David Schwendiman, told BIRN that suspected criminals are the target of his work, not the Kosovo Liberation Army. “I am not after organisations, I am not after ethnicities, I am looking at individual responsibility for what was done,” David Schwendiman said.
The chief prosecutor of the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, David Schwendiman, met today in Pristina Kosovo’s chief prosecutor, Aleksander Lumezi. The prosecutors discussed the organization, functions, power and jurisdiction of the Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office. Also, during the meeting they discussed the cooperation between the Specialist Prosecutor's Office and Kosovo’s Special Prosecution Office (SPRK).
Kosovo’s Foreign Minister, Enver Hoxhaj, said in an interview for TV Art that Kosovo has good relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia but that communication between the two countries may suffer as a result of the mistreatment of Albanians arrested in the Kumanovo case. “The Kumanovo incident has been overcome but what often makes the relations with Skopje difficult is the mistreatment of inmates during their transport from prison to the court. We have raised our concerns at the political level because this is unacceptable.
The President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, spoke from Tirana about the arrest of the Kosovo Police regional director, Nehat Thaçi, by Serbian authorities.
Thaçi said that Kosovo cannot respond to the arrests with arrests and to violence with violence. He added that Kosovo institutions are coordinating with international authorities in order to resolve this matter as soon as possible.
“I am obligated to protect witnesses and to keep confidential and secure all information that should be protected to ensure that witnesses who give evidence are not intimidated or harmed or threatened,” US lawyer David Schwendiman told his first press conference last month as the chief prosecutor at the Specialist Chambers.
Lawyer Živojin Jokanović says to RTK2 that he hopes the Special Court will meet the expectations of the Serbs in Kosovo.
On the other hand, Bekim Blakaj from the Humanitarian Law Center believes The Hague is good location for the Court but also he does not expect too much from it.
The two interlocutors agreed that the Special Court will not affect the normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, but they have different expectations.
Dusan Janjić, Director of the Forum for Ethnic Relations, says that it is important to prepare well indictments.
- It is about the prosecutor who is familiar with the region and the work. For the situation in Kosovo and among the Albanians, it is very important that this is a citizen of USA. Objectively, trials awaits new budget, March of 2017. I assume that this is the period in which the prosecutor will decide whether to start with small or larger cases, and will he tie several cases - Janjić told Vesti.
The first indictments for war crimes of the KLA likely to be raised by year-end, writes daily Politika.
According to unofficial information of the Fund for Humanitarian Law, Politika writes, so far have been prepared indictments against eight persons.
- If there are privileged who will avoid justice, a situation similar to that of the Hague Tribunal, of course, it will not be the highest international standards, unless one thinks that what was done in The Hague is the highest standard - said Drecun.
Nevertheless, he considers that the prosecution team engaged quite seriously with gathering evidence in recent months, and how many indictments will be it depends primarily on the results of their work, but also from the fact whether there will be political pressures.
The vice-president of the Self-Determination Movement, Driton Çaushi said that dialogue with Serbia will most probably shift to the level of presidents.
“It was announced that the format of the dialogue with Serbia will change, and most probably shift to the level of presidents. Thaçi is ready to do everything only that the Special Court has a mercy on him. As he already normalized relations with Dačić, now he endeavors to reconcile with Nikolić,” said Çaushi.
“To stop Thaçi and to stop Serbia are not different things now,” wrote Çaushi on his Facebook profile.