Kosovo to establish Institute on Crimes Committed During the War

Gazeta Express

20/05/2020 18:47

Kosovo Government is moving ahead with the plans to establish the Institute on Crimes Committed During the War and on Wednesday was convened the working team tasked to prepare establishment of the Institute.

Caretaker Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu, said establishment of the Institute was one of the promises of the Government headed by Albin Kurti. During Wednesday’s meeting it was agreed that the Working Team will be chaired by Furtuna Sheremeti, an advisor to PM Kurti, and it will consist of professors of the Law Faculty, Ministry of Justice, Forensic Medicine, Statistics Agency, Association of Political Prisoners and Organization of War Veterans, the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, representatives from Kosovo Archives, and experts.

“Today we had the first meeting of this team to discuss the idea about this institute,” Haxhiu said. “We consider that it is important that the institute is established by a special law and not a decision. You know that Kosovo in 2011 established the institute for war crimes but it was not supported either by human or material capacities. In 2018, the same institute ceased to exist. Now it is high time to deal with war crimes cases,” she said.

Caretaker PM Kurti who attended the meeting said the name of this body is not “Institute on War Crimes” but Institute on Crimes Committee During the War. “This is because we consider it is important to address also other crimes which have happened in Kosovo during the war, which are crimes against humanity and genocide,” Kurti said. He said that addressing war crimes in Kosovo was not successful. “No results were achieved that we can be proud of. We cannot say a good job was done in addressing war crimes,” Kurti said. He said war victims and survivors have lost trust in justice, whereas witnesses are dying without having a chance to testify about the atrocities.  “We should work on doing our best to address all what happened during the war in Kosovo,” Kurti said.

The Working Team chairwoman, Furtuna Sheremeti, said that the Minister has established a working team that will analyse how the institute will operate. “This team has a mandate until September. We consider that this institute should be established by law,” she said. /GazetaExpress/