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

1. INTRODUCTION
Kosovo: Time for EULEX to prioritize war crimes 3
In June 2012, the Council of the European Union will approve the extension of the mandate
of the EU-led rule of law mission in Kosovo, (EULEX). In this report, Amnesty International
advocates that the new mandate should include specific measures to ensure that EULEX, as
a matter of urgency, prioritizes the investigation and prosecution of crimes under
international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Amnesty International is aware that over the next two years the EULEX mission will be
reconfigured, and that the mission will down-size, and withdraw personnel from the police
and customs sectors, leaving the mission to focus on the justice system. Amnesty
International considers that this is an ideal opportunity to strengthen both the international
and local components of the justice sector, and in so doing, provide the resources and
personnel needed to effectively address the persistent impunity which persists in Kosovo.
Across the Balkans, impunity for war crimes remains one of the most serious human rights
concerns. In Kosovo impunity persists for war crimes committed by both sides of the 1999
armed conflict. Few of the Serb military, police and paramilitary forces responsible for war
crimes against Kosovo Albanians have been brought to justice. However, even fewer members
of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), responsible for war crimes against Kosovo Serbs, Roma
and members of other minority communities have been prosecuted and convicted.
Despite the presence in Kosovo since 1999 of international police, and (since 2000) of
international prosecutors and judges, charged with the investigation, prosecution and
adjudication of war crimes, little progress was made by EULEX’s predecessor, the United
Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
In January 2008 Amnesty International published a report, Kosovo (Serbia): The challenge to
fix a failed UN justice mission, which described the failures of UNMIK’s international justice
system in Kosovo. 1 This report demonstrated that UNMIK had failed to establish an effective
and impartial justice system, with concrete reference to the investigation and prosecution of
war crimes. That report made specific recommendations, “to any future EU mission or any
other international body mandated to assist the government of Kosovo in ensuring the
development of a fully functional prosecutorial and judicial system in Kosovo (irrespective of
the form of any agreement on the final status of Kosovo)”. These recommendations sought to
ensure that the then-planned EULEX mission did not make the same mistakes as UNMIK.
As this report illustrates, many of Amnesty International’s recommendations were indeed
taken on board and put into practice by EULEX, although over the ensuing years, in several
areas EULEX either failed to identify solutions or gradually fell back into UNMIK’s old ways.
In this report, and bearing in mind the organization’s 2008 recommendations, Amnesty
International analyses the progress made by EULEX in the investigation and prosecution of
war crimes. In the light of those findings the organization makes a series of new
recommendations which aim to inform decision-makers in EU member states and
institutions, in advance of their extension of EULEX’s mandate.
Index: EUR 70/004/2012 Amnesty International April 2012