Eurasia Press & News
A draft statute obtained by BIRN suggests Kosovo’s president will press ahead with a ‘presidential’ commission on Kosovo’s 1998-99 war, ignoring experts who say it risks being seen as ‘highly political’.
Kosovo’s president is poised to launch a ‘transitional justice’ commission with a three-year mandate and the possibility of survivors addressing public hearings, according a draft statute seen by BIRN, the terms of which risk fuelling concern about the initiative’s independence and fairness.
In its establishment by the office of the president, the proposed Presidential Commission for Transitional Justice marks a departure from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission first envisaged in 2017 and which would have been created by parliament.
It will focus on the period January 1, 1998 to June 20, 1999, taking in Serbia’s brutal counter-insurgency war against ethnic Albanian guerrillas, the ethnic cleansing and massacre of Albanian civilians, and the 11 weeks of NATO air strikes that forced the withdrawal of Serbian forces under Slobodan Milosevic.
Crucially, however, it risks largely overlooking the wave of revenge attacks carried out against minority Serbs and other communities after hostilities officially ended on June 10, 1999 and which continued long after June 20.
According to the draft statute seen by BIRN, the Commission will have 11 members: five representatives of organisations representing war victims, including two from non-Albanian communities; two representatives of civil society with expertise in transitional justice; two external experts; a psychologist; and a psychiatrist.
The Commission’s work will culminate in a report to be submitted three months before the end of its mandate, which will last three years with the possibility of a 12-month extension.
Its work, according to the statute, will focus on “promoting coexistence between communities in Kosovo, grounded in the values of tolerance and respect”.
But experts are sceptical, not least given the Commission’s attachment to the office of the Kosovo president.
“The creation of this Commission through a presidential decree could be problematic, as it may be perceived as highly political and raise concerns about its independence and fairness,” said Nora Ahmetaj, a researcher on transitional justice and former member of the preparatory team for the original Truth and Reconciliation Commission between 2018 and 2020.
“To ensure the institution is credible, this mechanism should be established through open discussions in the Assembly, with the involvement of diverse segments of society and clear rules and safeguards to protect the independence and integrity of the process,” Ahmetaj told BIRN.
The president’s office declined to comment for this story.
‘Political stunt’
Thousands of Albanian civilians died and almost a million were driven from their homes during the 1998-99 war, when Milosevic unleashed the army, police and paramilitaries on the ethnic Albanian majority in Serbia’s then southern province.
For a decade, as federal Yugoslavia fell apart, Albanians pursued a policy of passive resistance to Serbian repression, until guerrillas took up arms in the late 1990s. The Serbian response was devastating, prompting NATO to launch air strikes that lasted 78 days before Milosevic pulled out and Kosovo became a ward of the United Nations. It declared independence in 2008 with the backing of the major Western powers. Serbia has vowed never to recognise Kosovo as sovereign.
With a year left of her mandate, the transitional justice commission could be central to Vjosa Osmani’s legacy as president.
According to the draft statute, the aim is to promote the preservation of collective memory, ensure recognition of victims, help restore their dignity, and foster a culture of solidarity with victims.
It also calls for the creation of a safe environment in which victims can speak openly about their wartime experiences.
The initiative is based on the government’s own Transitional Justice Strategy, but, said Ahmetaj, the strategy “does not deal with revealing the whole truth, including the violations after June 1999, which were closely related to the war”.
These violations form much of the focus of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a court created in The Hague to try former KLA fighters for war crimes, including revenge attacks on Serbs and political rivals. Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who proposed the original truth and reconciliation commission in 2017, is currently standing trial at the court.
More than a quarter of a century since the war, Serbs and Albanians remain deeply divided over what went on and who was to blame.
Milica Radovanovic, a researcher at the New Social Initiative in predominantly Serb-populated North Mitrovica, echoed Ahmetaj’s criticism, arguing that a commission based on the government Transitional Justice Strategy is doomed to failure.
“That deeply flawed document, which epitomises the distortion of fundamental principles of transitional justice, cannot serve as the foundation for any genuine progress in this field,” said Radovanovic.
“The president has chosen to base her Commission on this document, and that alone speaks volumes about the nature of this initiative,” she told BIRN.
“This is yet another political stunt, a performance designed more for appearances than for a serious and honest reckoning with the past.”
Public hearings
Bekim Blakaj, head of the Humanitarian Law Centre in Kosovo, which has spent years documenting wartime crimes and advocating for justice, human rights, and reconciliation, said the founding act and statute of the commission must be detailed and specific in defining its mandate.
“Only in this way can the expectations of victims be genuinely addressed,” Blakaj told BIRN.
So far, the draft statute envisages psychosocial and logistical support for survivors, with special attention given to those who suffered wartime sexual violence, as well as public hearings involving both survivors and perpetrators.
Public hearings are a hallmark of other truth and reconciliation commissions, most notably that of South Africa, when the perpetrators and victims of crimes committed under Apartheid gave often harrowing testimony.
“By taking an inclusive approach, the Commission can ensure that the voices of victims from all ethnic communities are heard,” said Blakaj, though he cautioned that getting perpetrators to come forward would be difficult.
“They may have little incentive to do so,” Blakaj told BIRN. “Even if they agree to participate, it is crucial to proceed with great care to avoid causing further harm to victims.”
Veprore Shehu, executive director of Medica Kosova, an organisation based in Gjakova/Djakovica that supports survivors of violence, said the Commission should think carefully about how it supports victims of sexual violence.
“The mandate of the Commission should specify how it will provide the necessary psychosocial support to victims of sexual violence, and who will be responsible for delivering these services,” Shehu told BIRN.
“This Commission must ensure that victims of sexual violence are treated differently under the law from other categories of war victims, as this form of violence causes long-term, complex trauma that requires specialised services.”
