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

Kosovo: Time for EULEX to prioritize war crimes 33
of Serbs and other minorities back under its jurisdiction for immediate investigation. The
organization notes that the recently initiated investigation by the EULEX Special Investigative
Task Force (see, The “Marty Report”, below) addresses the post-conflict transfer to Albania of
abducted Serbs; there is no reason why the SPRK should investigate other post-conflict
abduction cases.
Amnesty International notes that all persons reported missing up until the end of 2000 are
included by the ICRC in their database, “For persons unaccounted for in connection with the
crisis in Kosovo” and “Family Links” site. 87 Further, Article 1 of the Law on Missing Persons,
adopted by the Kosovo Assembly in 2011, enshrines “the right of family members to know
about the fate of missing persons, who were reported missing during the period 1 January
1998 – 31 December 2000, as a consequence of the war in Kosovo during 1998-1999”. 88
At the Special War Crimes Chamber in Belgrade, 17 former members of the KLA, known as the “Gnijlane
Group”, were indicted on 23 September 2009 for “grave breaches of international legal rules governing the
conduct of war”, 89 including the abduction of 267 Serbs, other non-Albanians and some Kosovo Albanians. At
least 80 persons were tortured and killed; 34 remain missing; and 153 were unlawfully deprived of their
liberty, subjected to ill-treatment and subsequently released. Nine members of the group were convicted of
war crimes and sentenced to a total of 101 years’ imprisonment on 21 January 2011. The verdict was quashed
on appeal on 7 December 2011 on the basis that the decision was in violation of the CPC as the wording was
unclear and contradictory, and as the reasoning of the Trial Judgement lacked decisive facts. The retrial
opened on 13 February 2012. 90
The indictment stated that, in violation of their obligations under the Military–Technical Agreement of June
1999 and UN SC Resolution 1244/99, between June and December 1999 the KLA unit “committed a number of
criminal acts against Serb and other non-Albanian civilians, as well as against some ethnic Albanians, which
included unlawful arrests, inhumane treatment, torture, rapes [discussed below, p. 38], murders, causing
bodily injuries and great suffering, pillage of civilian property …”. 91
AN ONGOING VIOLATION
The failure of the relevant authorities to conduct prompt, impartial independent and thorough
investigations into both complaints of enforced disappearance and abduction and to bring
those responsible to justice violates the rights to liberty and security of the person, to life and
to be free from torture and other ill-treatment, and to an effective remedy. These rights are
guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the
European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), (respectively
under Articles 9,6,7 and 2 of the ICCPR and Articles 5,2,3 and 13 of the ECHR).
HUMAN RIGHTS ADVISORY PANEL
The failure of UNMIK, for over 10 ten years, to investigate post-conflict abductions has been challenged by
Kosovo Serb families, the majority of them now living in Serbia.
On 28 June 1999, Petrija Piljević, a 57-year-old Kosovo Serb, was abducted from her flat in Pristina by men
wearing Kosovo Liberation Army uniforms. A year later her body was exhumed from a cemetery in Pristina by a
team of experts working for the Tribunal. Her son identified his mother's body from the clothes she was
wearing.
Index: EUR 70/004/2012 Amnesty International April 2012