Time for eULeX To prioriTize war crimes - Amnesty International ...

Kosovo: Time for EULEX to prioritize war crimes 23
officers do not have the capacity or readiness to take on war crimes cases, but they may have
the technical capability within a couple of years.
The WCIU has also contributed to the cooperation developed with the Serbian Office of the
War Crimes Prosecutor, providing evidence and enabling witnesses to be heard in
proceedings at the Special War Crimes Chamber in Belgrade against members of Serbian
military, paramilitary and police (see above, p. 10). Investigations are currently ongoing
including in the case of Meje/Meja village, where more than 300 Kosovo Albanian men were
killed by Serbian forces in April 1999, and the killing of at least 70 Kosovo Albanian
detainees by Serbian forces in Dubrava prison on 22 May 1999.
Amnesty International also notes that progress made to date by the WCIU is in no small
measure due to the leadership from 2008 of Matti Raatikainen as Chief of War Crimes
Investigations. The organization considers this to be one of the most persuasive arguments
for long-term appointments of mission personnel.
THE SPECIAL PROSECUTION OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOSOVO (SPRK)
Responsibility for the investigation of war crimes, in conjunction with the WCIU, and for the
prosecution of war crimes, and other serious crimes lies with the SPRK. The SPRK was
established by the Law on the Special Prosecution Office of the Republic of Kosovo (Law No.
03/L-052), which was adopted in March 2008, as one of the laws in the Atishaari package,
which aimed to provide Kosovo with the institutions it required for “supervised
independence”. 58
The SPRK became operational from 9 December 2008 as a “permanent and specialized
prosecutorial office operating within the Office of the State Prosecutor in Kosovo”. 59 The
SPRK is administered by both the Kosovo authorities (Ministry of Justice) and by EULEX, and
headed by an EULEX prosecutor.
The SPRK is invested with exclusive competence to investigate and prosecute a range of
crimes set out in the Provisional Criminal Code of Kosovo (PCCK), which entered into force
on 6 April 2004. These include the following “Criminal Offences against International Law”:
Article 116 – Genocide; Article 117 - Crimes against humanity; and Articles 118-121 - war
crimes in grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and other crimes against international law.
The SPRK also has competency over other serious crimes including serious inter-ethnic
crime, Terrorism and Organized Crime, and a range of subsidiary competences over other
offences. 60
STAFFING
Until February 2010, the SPRK operated with “an average” of six EULEX special prosecutors
and six Kosovo special prosecutors; after February 2010, another 10 local special
prosecutors were appointed, one as deputy head, in accordance with the Law on the SPRK.
By June 2011, the SPRK consisted of 11 international prosecutors, 10 Kosovo prosecutors
and support staff (including five financial experts in the Anti-Corruption Task Force).
Throughout this period, only two international prosecutors were specifically dedicated to the
investigation and prosecution of war crimes. 61 In 2011, an additional two local prosecutors
had begun to work on war crimes cases.
Index: EUR 70/004/2012 Amnesty International April 2012