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

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6 Kosovo: Time for EULEX to prioritize war crimes future, local prosecutors - along with members of the judiciary – require intensive training and experience. They also need appropriate protection for themselves and their families, as well as further measures to ensure their independence and impartiality. For the past 13 years, the international community – UNMIK and EULEX – have been responsible for the prosecution and adjudication of crimes against international law. This will ultimately become the responsibility of the Kosovo authorities, and prosecutorial and judicial bodies. EULEX’s final duty is to assist them in developing a long term strategy for ending impunity for such crimes, including by ensuring that the justice system is free from political interference by the executive. Amnesty International urges EU member states and other decision-makers, in their review of EULEX’s 2012-2014 mandate, to ensure that EULEX: 1. Prioritizes the investigation and prosecution of the backlog of crimes against international law; including by: � Increasing the number of international EULEX war crimes police, prosecutors and judges; � Maintaining the role of international staff within the Department of Forensic Medicine, until such time as professionally trained local staff, including forensic scientists and forensic anthropologists, are in place; � Ensuring the investigation and prosecution of the post-war abduction of Serbs, Roma and members of other minority communities; � Ensuring the investigation and prosecution of war-time crimes of rape and other forms of sexual violence; � Removing barriers to expeditious investigations and prosecutions; 2. Establishes an effective, international witness protection programme; including through: � The support of member states in providing long-tern protection for key witnesses in war crimes cases; 3. Takes measures to ensure the long-term sustainability of the prosecutorial and judicial system in Kosovo; including through: � Supporting the ongoing development of a competent, impartial, independent and effective body of local prosecutors and judges, with the capacity to prosecute and adjudicate on war crimes cases; � Exploring the possibilities of establishing a long term mechanism or institution for the future investigation, prosecution and adjudication of war crimes when EULEX leaves Kosovo. Amnesty International April 2012 Index: EUR 70/004/2012
Kosovo: Time for EULEX to prioritize war crimes 7 3. BACKGROUND: WAR IN KOSOVO In 1999 Kosovo was a province of the Republic of Serbia, which was then a republic within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). 2 The majority of the population were Kosovo Albanians, while Kosovo Serbs made up only between 5-8 per cent; other smaller minority groups included Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, Turks, Bosniaks and Gorani. In 1989, the Serbian government had revoked Kosovo’s autonomous status, but in 1991, following a referendum, boycotted by Kosovo Serbs and not recognized by the FRY authorities, Kosovo Albanians declared independence. There followed almost a decade of systematic human rights violations against Kosovo Albanians primarily by the Serbian police. 3 By the mid-1990s the Kosovo Albanians’ strategy of non-violent resistance and parallel institutions, under the leadership of Ibrahim Rugova, was increasingly challenged by some Kosovo Albanians who began to take up arms against Serbian forces. In 1998 the frequency and intensity of human rights violations perpetrated by FRY and Serbian security forces and paramilitaries primarily against Kosovo Albanians increased. By March 1998 a non-international armed conflict had erupted in Kosovo, between members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and other armed groups that had formed to fight for an independent Kosovo, and FRY forces, Serb police and paramilitary groups. During this period ethnic Albanian civilians were subjected to arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, unlawful killings and other deliberate and indiscriminate attacks. By June 1998 an estimated 60,000 ethnic Albanians had fled or been forced from their homes and were either internally displaced in Kosovo or seeking international protection. Kosovo Serb civilians were also abducted, and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and deliberate killings by armed ethnic Albanian groups including the KLA. In early 1999, the international community, including the US authorities, facilitated a series of meetings that aimed to broker an agreement on resolving the conflict. Following the failure of talks in early 1999 at Rambouillet in France, which sought agreement between the FRY and representatives of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians, NATO commenced a bombing campaign against FRY forces, Serb police and paramilitaries with the declared aim of preventing a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo. From 24 March to 10 June 1999 the NATO air campaign against the FRY, codenamed Operation Allied Force, conducted over 38,000 combat sorties, including 10,484 strike sorties, against targets in Serbia proper, the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina and the Republic of Montenegro, then part of the FRY. 4 The military intervention of NATO meant there was an international armed conflict between NATO members and FRY forces, alongside the non-international armed conflict between FRY forces and the KLA. Human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law by FRY military forces, Serb police and paramilitary groups increased during the NATO bombing campaign, and hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians and members of minority communities fled Kosovo into Albania and Macedonia, or were displaced inside Kosovo. Index: EUR 70/004/2012 Amnesty International April 2012
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