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

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Kosovo: Time for EULEX to prioritize war crimes
chief prosecutor was praised in street graffiti.
In interviews with EULEX officials conducted in October 2011, Amnesty International found
that, whilst none was prepared to go on the record, several EULEX officials – as well as local
prosecutors and judges commented on continued political interference by EULEX in
particular cases or in policy areas, including a resistance to prosecute in both the Sabit Geci
case, and interference by other international actors in the Fatmir Limaj case. Several credible
independent interlocutors have suggested that the US Office in Kosovo had suggested to
EULEX that measures should be taken to avoid the prosecution of Fatmir Limaj. It is to
EULEX’s credit that they resisted such pressure, and proceedings were concluded in the
former case, and are now ongoing in the latter.
INTERFERENCE AND IMPUNITY
Following publication of the Marty Report and subsequent revelations in the media, there is
now incontrovertible evidence to suggest that active measures were taken by UNMIK,
including by the SRSG and the Department of Justice, to ensure that investigations were not
conducted, including into crimes under international law (including abductions as crimes
against humanity). These include allegations against former members of the KLA, including
those occupying positions of high office. Interference was not confined to the Kosovo courts:
in March 2006, the UMNIK Office of Legal Affairs sought to interfere in the issuance of
international arrest warrants by Serbia on the basis that Serbia had no jurisdiction over
Kosovo. 162 Interference in certain cases by the US office was also reported, including in the
case of the then prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, indicted by the Tribunal.
Amnesty International has also been informed in interviews with former UNMIK officials, that
a number of case files were deliberately “lost” by UNMIK in the handover of cases to the
EUPT and EULEX. In others cases involving the KLA, investigations were stopped: in 2003,
for example, the son of a Serbian woman, abducted and killed – allegedly by the KLA –
received a telephone call from the investigating police officer, to inform him that he could no
longer work on the case. No further reason was given.
In the aftermath of the Marty report, an internal document from the Tribunal, dated 30 October 2003, was
made available in the media; according to France 24, this document had “never been presented to the
European Union’s police and justice mission in Kosovo (EULEX)”. 163
The document noted that, in a meeting on 29 October 2003, the Head of the UNMIK Department of Justice had
provided the Tribunal’s Chief of Investigations with “relevant material” relating to what is described as “The
Albanian Issue”. This included 29 pages of documentation related to the allegations that have since been
made public in the Marty report; this also includes a possibly subsequent letter, dated 12 December 2003,
signed by Paul E Coffey, then Director of the UNMIK Department of Justice.
The bundle of documents included interviews with four witnesses, who stated that they were participants in
the transport of prisoners to Albania (as described in the Marty report) and a list of four other potential
witnesses. The names of 10 “captives”, and information relating to where and when they were last seen by the
witnesses, are also included. As of 24 February 2012, six of those named as “captives” – Vlastimir Stovanović,
Zlatko Antić, Simisa Vitosević, Gradimir Majmarević, Mladen Vasci and Sladjana Fan - remain listed as
missing persons on the ICRC database. 164
Amnesty International April 2012 Index: EUR 70/004/2012