KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS FROM INVESTIGATIONS TO INDICTMENTS PUBLISHED BY KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS: FROM INVESTIGATIONS TO INDICTMENTS A unique collection of expert analyses, interviews and archive reports that traces the history of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers from the initial Council of Europe investigation into wartime and post-war crimes by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters to the establishment of the new court to try them in The Hague. Produced by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network INTRODUCTION Six years after Council of Europe made grave allegations that serious crimes were commited by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters during and af- ter the 1990s war, the specialist court tasked with prosecuting people for those crimes has started work. The establishment of the Specialist Chambers sparked protests in Kosovo itself, where the Kosovo Liberation Army is seen as a liberating force that fought a just war, and its cases could prove to be highly politically sensi- tive. Ahead of the first indictments, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Net- work has compiled its extensive archive on the subject into this compre- hensive guide to how the court will work, what are its main challenges and what the key players have to say about the allegations and the forthcom- ing prosecutions. BIRN has been following the issue since the beginning - in the early 2000s, our journalists were among the first to report on KLA-run deten- tion camps in Albania. After that, BIRN continued to report on the Council of Europe investiga- tion into the alleged crimes, then the EU task force set up to probe the CoE report, and finally the establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. As a result, we have compiled more than 100 reports related to the topic in this e-book. The establishment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers has been marked by controversy – the court is seen as biased in Kosovo because it targets one ethnic group, while in Serbia it has been greeted as the last hope for justice for Kosovo’s Serbs. In this heated environment, we believe that this e-book can be a valua- ble tool for everyone who has been following this tortuous road towards justice. We also hope that it will contribute an objective understanding of the complex issues involved in bringing people to justice for the crimes of the wartime past - one of the core values of BIRN’s work in the area of transitional justice. Marija Ristic CONTENTS KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS: IN BRIEF 5 INTERVIEWS 15 THE MAIN CHALLENGES 66 REPORTS FROM BIRN’S NEWS ARCHIVE 95 DOCUMENTS 248 CHAPTER KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS: IN BRIEF KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS: IN BRIEF The Specialist Chambers building in The Hague. Photo: Europol. Six years after a Council of Europe report accused Kosovo Liberation Army fighters of brutal crimes, the special court set up to prosecute these allegations is ready to issue its first indictments. Marija RISTIC Former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army guerrilla group who are allegedly responsible for killings, abductions, torture and other human rights violations during and after the Kosovo war may soon be standing in the dock because the new court’s rules of procedure will enter into force in seven days’ time after they were finally approved on June 28. Although based in The Hague, the Specialist Chambers is legally part of Kosovo’s judicial system, but independent from the Kosovo judiciary and staffed by internationals, while all decisions and appointments related to the court will be made by the European Union. KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS FROM INVESTIGATIONS TO INDICTMENTS - 6 - The chambers had their rules of procedure and evidence ready in March. But a month later, the chambers’ Constitutional Court decided that out of 208 rules of procedure and evidence, ten provisions were not in line with Kosovo’s constitution. They were found not to be consistent with Chapter 2 of the Kosovo con- stitution dealing with fundamental rights and freedoms and were related to people’s rights during investigations and administration issues in the Specialist Chambers. So the chambers took another month and a half to correct these issues in order to assure that the “highest human rights standards are applied”, said the new court’s president Ekaterina Trendafilova. The revised rules of procedure were finally adopted on June 28, paving the way for the prosecution to officially launch indictments and to start trials. David Schwendiman, the chief prosecutor at the new Kosovo court. Photo: Kosovo specialist prosecutor’s office WHAT NEXT FOR THE PROSECUTION? When the rules of procedure enter into force, on July 3, the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office can issue indictments against former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army. In the last couple of years, there have been speculations about who will be charged, particularly as the initial Council of Europe report looking at the KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS FROM INVESTIGATIONS TO INDICTMENTS - 7 - alleged crimes mentioned the names of those who were claimed to have been responsible, including the current Kosovo President Hashim Thaci. However prosecutor David Schwendiman has so far managed to keep the names confidential. In an interview with BIRN in November 2016, Schwendiman also stressed that suspected criminals are his target, not the Kosovo Liberation Army itself. “I am not after organisations, I am not after ethnicities, I am looking at individual responsibility for what was done,” he argued. It also remains to be seen if the prosecutor will produce sealed or public indictments. During any arrests, he can count on EU rule-of-law police in Kosovo, but also on the Kosovo police force, as well as seeking cooperation from any other state. Kosovo’s law on the Specialist Chambers also allows the prosecution to have its own police, but how this will work in practice remains a secret due to the sensitivity of the task. Many in Kosovo however believe that those ex-guerrillas who are indicted will voluntarily surrender to the court. When it comes to detention, police will have 48 hours from the arrest to bring the suspect to the judge, who will decide on custody measures. The chambers’ detention facilities will be in the Netherlands. KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS FROM INVESTIGATIONS TO INDICTMENTS - 8 - A banner showing Serbs kidnapped and killed during the Kosovo war, whose cases may now result in prosecutions. Photo: BETA WHAT IS THE COURT’S MANDATE? The Specialist Chambers will have jurisdiction over crimes that occurred between January 1, 1998 until December 31, 2000, and that either were committed or commenced in Kosovo, meaning it can also prosecute crimes committed in Albania, as many of the prisoners who were taken away by the Kosovo Liberation Army were detained in camps in northern Albania. The chambers will be able to prosecute crimes against humanity, includ- ing murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape, enforced disappearance and other persecution on political, racial, ethnic or religious grounds. It will also prosecute war crimes and other violations - including the destruction of civilians’ property, towns, villages and religious buildings. The Specialist Chambers will have jurisdiction over crimes that occurred between January 1, 1998 until December 31, 2000, and that either were committed or commenced in Kosovo, meaning it can also prosecute crimes committed in Albania, as many of the prisoners who were taken away by the Kosovo Liberation Army were detained in camps in northern Albania. The chambers will be able to prosecute crimes against humanity, includ- ing murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape, enforced disappearance and other persecution on political, racial, ethnic or religious grounds. It will also prosecute war crimes and other violations - including the destruction of civilians’ property, towns, villages and religious buildings. KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS FROM INVESTIGATIONS TO INDICTMENTS - 9 - Clint Williamson, chief prosecutor at the EU special task force. Photo: SITF WHAT CRIMES ARE LIKELY TO BE PROSECUTED? The last person who spoke in detail about alleged violations committed by Kosovo Liberation Army members was Clint Williamson, the head of the EU Special Task Force which investigated the claims of violent abuses made in the initial Council of Europe report. In a statement in 2014, Williamson said that enough evidence had been gathered to file indictments against senior Kosovo Liberation Army offi- cials who “bear responsibility for campaign of persecution that was di- rected against ethnic Serbs, Roma and other minority population of Koso- vo and toward fellow Kosovo Albanians whom they labeled as collaborators of Serbs or more commonly to have simply been political opponents of the KLA leadership”. According to Williamson, ethnic cleansing of large numbers of Serbs and Roma also took place in Kosovo. Williamson also said that the evidence was compelling that these were not the acts of rogue individuals but conducted in an organised fashion, adding that the abuses that took place after June 1999 amounted to crimes against humanity. KOSOVO SPECIALIST CHAMBERS FROM INVESTIGATIONS TO INDICTMENTS - 10 - Anti-EULEX graffiti in Kosovo. Photo: Flickr/John Worth. WHY WAS THE NEW COURT NECESSARY? There have previously been attempts to prosecute these allegations by three international institutions. The crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army in camps in north- ern Albania were first discovered by US journalist Michael Montgomery, who passed the evidence he got to the UN Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, which was the administrative authority in Kosovo after the war ended in June 1999. The memo sent to UNMIK went to the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, which was then investigating crimes committed during the Kosovo war. The ICTY progressed slowly on the case and encountered numerous obsta- cles in investigating these claims, as former ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte detailed in her book in 2008.