Humanitarian Law Center in Serbia: The Number of Prosecuted Serbs Doesn’t Match the Scale of Crimes in Kosovo

The first-instance verdicts against the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), handed down by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, come at a time when the era of major international war-crimes trials for the former Yugoslavia is nearing its end.

Transitional-justice experts assess that the conclusion of the proceedings in The Hague does not imply the closure of all war-crimes cases, and that in the future a growing share of responsibility will fall to domestic courts.

On September 16, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers found former Kosovo president and former KLA commander Hashim Thaçi guilty of war crimes committed during 1998–1999, while acquitting him of charges of crimes against humanity.

The same case also included the other former KLA leaders, Jakup Krasniqi, Kadri Veseli and Rexhep Selimi. The verdict is not final and can be appealed.

However, according to experts quoted by Radio Free Europe, even the full conclusion of this process would not necessarily mean the end of the Specialist Chambers’ work.

Bekim Blakaj, director of the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo, said the lack of judicial cooperation between the countries of the former Yugoslavia remains worrying. According to him, this makes it harder to hold proceedings in the presence of the accused and to prosecute persons who are outside the country.

Trials in absentia in Kosovo — Blakaj assessed that after the transfer of competences from UNMIK and EULEX to domestic institutions, the ethnic composition of persons prosecuted for war crimes has also changed.

According to him, during the period when the proceedings were led by internationals, most of the accused were Albanians, while a large share of suspected persons from the ranks of Serb forces were not accessible to the Kosovo authorities.

Since 2022, changes to the Criminal Procedure Code have enabled trials in absentia in Kosovo.