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Five years after its founding, the special court arrests a defendant for the first time. However, witness protection remains the biggest weak point when dealing with the legal past.
KLA veterans still have great influence in Kosovo two decades after the war. Commemoration event in March 2018 of the 20th anniversary of the death of the founder of the KLA, Adem Jashaari.
Legal reconciliation with the past is causing a sensation in Kosovo once again. On Friday, the EU Mission for the rule of law in Europe’s youngest country raided the Veterans Association of the Liberation Army of Kosovo (KLA). Among other things, the president of the association, Hysni Gucati, was arrested.
Theft of thousands of pages of confidential court documents
No official information is available on the reason for the raid. The action took place in the context of a matter that has been shedding light on the sore point of the Kosovo special court and the legal agreement with the past in general for several weeks: witness protection.
The KLA Veterans Association announced on September 7 that it had received official documents from the Kosovo Special Court from an anonymous source. Two more deliveries followed in the following days. In total, it should be several thousand pages of classified information. The names of witnesses are also included.
Under pressure from the West, the Kosovar parliament created the court in 2015 to investigate war crimes and other serious crimes committed by the Albanian side in the Kosovo war. Serbian troops had committed serious crimes against the civilian population of Kosovo before withdrawing from Kosovo following NATO intervention. After that, however, there were KLA attacks on Serbs and other ethnic minorities, as well as numerous killings of political opponents.
Weak Point Witness Protection
The prosecution and the special court tribunal are part of the Kosovo judicial system, but are located in the Netherlands and run by international lawyers. This is to avoid attempts to influence the court and especially the witnesses. Two decades after the War of Independence, Kosovo’s political elite is still heavily influenced by KLA veterans.
Gaining witnesses to testify against influential personalities in Kosovo’s small society, which is characterized by close family ties, has always been one of the main problems in the legal process of war. The two trials against former Kosovar head of government – and former KLA commander – Ramush Haradinaj before the International War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) were marked by severe attempts at intimidation against witnesses. The Kosovo Special Court attaches great importance to preserving the anonymity of witnesses.
Warnings before publication
The Veterans Association asked the Kosovar media to publish the documents with the names of the witnesses blackened to expose the court’s alleged bias. The association is one of the most vehement criticisms of the court. Since the court mainly investigates crimes committed by the Albanian side, it is accused of being pro-Serbian and of cooperating with Belgrade.
In Kosovo, leaked documents, the authenticity of which the court did not confirm, have yet to be made public. However, an Albanian television station broadcast excerpts of the indictment against President Hashim Thaci.
The Special Prosecutor’s Office had been investigating Thaci for years. The Ticino Council of States, Dick Marty, perhaps the most important driver for a legal reassessment of the Kosovo war, had in his report to the Council of Europe attributed Thaci the main responsibility for a number of serious crimes.
Even without the widespread publication of the secret documents, the alleged theft endangers the work of the special court. Even the assumption that the veterans association has access to the names of witnesses is likely to have a deterrent effect on those willing to testify. Furthermore, the matter represents a considerable loss of reputation for the institution, which is already very hostile in Kosovo. Political opposition to Prime Minister Albin Kurti, an intimate enemy of President Thaci, is also hostile to the court.
First arrest by a special court
The shameful affair overshadows a milestone in the Kosovo war legal process. The special court detention center has had a first inmate since Thursday. Salih Mustafa, a former KLA commander, was arrested on Thursday by court order and taken to The Hague, the seat of the special extraterritorial court.
The current employee of the Kosovo Ministry of Defense is accused of being responsible for numerous cases of deprivation of liberty, torture and murder involving civilians as victims during the Kosovo war as the commander of a KLA unit in the northeast of the country. The prosecution qualifies the alleged acts against Mustafa as a war crime. It is not yet known when the trial will begin.
KLA supporters expressed their sympathy for the defendant Hashim Thaci on the day of the hearing in The Hague.
Kosovo President Hashim Thaci leaves the Special Court building in The Hague after a hearing in July. The charges against Thaci have yet to be confirmed by a judge.
Eulex security forces arrested President Hysni Gucati in a raid against the Kosovo Veterans Association.
