Eurasia Press & News
EULEX Deputy Head Roy Reeve said Monday that the EU mission has appointed seven of its judges to the court in northern Kosovska Mitrovica. According to him, this came in an attempt to reduce the number of unresolved cases, which has reached 20,000.
There is still a backlog and we have only now gained insight into some cases. This greatly affects the life of the people in the north, Reeve told Kosovska Mitrovica radio Kontakt Plus.
He believes that the court in northern Kosovska Mitrovica which has been shut down “is above all a huge human rights issue”.
Reeve said that the EU mission in the province “is trying to form trial chambers made up of Serb, (ethnic) Albanian and EULEX judges”.
He noted that the problems that arose with the court in Kosovska Mitrovica were finding enough qualified Serb judges as well as people acceptable to both Belgrade and Priština, and finally threats and intimidation directed at the Serb judges.
The threats did not come from political, but criminal elements who do now want to see certain cases resolved. It would be a success if we could eliminate these criminal elements as that would make the citizens’ lives easier, Reeve asserted.
The court in Kosovska Mitrovica has not operated at full capacity for over two years, since international forces stormed the court building, where former Serb judiciary workers had been protesting for several days demanding they be reinstated to their posts.
