Kosovo demands a new tribunal from EU

President of Kosovo - Atifete Jahjaga - intends to ask the EU to set up a special court, outside Kosovo. She has secured all-party consent. The reasons are due to the fact Kosovo is dealing with war crimes committed in the 1990s.

Jahjaga said she would ask Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief “to establish a Kosovo court located outside the country in order to address allegations [against former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters] raised in the Council of Europe report of 2010”.

In a press release issued on Friday, the Kosovo president said: “The establishment of a special court reflects the engagement of Kosovo for an independent and unbiased process in dealing with these accusations in a credible manner. This court will be focused on individuals and individual acts and is not a judgment of the collective efforts of our people for liberty and freedom”.

Although all main parties in Kosovo have now agreed to set up the new war crimes tribunal, some opposition leaders still said the decision was damaging.

Isa Mustafa, head of the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo, said the establishment of the tribunal was "a heavy burden for Kosovo".

“We do not consider that Kosovo deserves such a court”, he said. Parliament has to approve the establishment of the court in the coming weeks.

The tribunal is designed to shed light on war crimes allegedly committed by former Kosovo Liberation Army members during 1998-1999.

The proposed establishment of the tribunal and EULEX’s new mandate have to be approved by the Kosovo parliament, but it remains unclear when a vote will be held.

“Once the exchange of letters is done, we will send it to the responsible institutions”, Jahjaga’s media adviser Arber Vllahiu told Birn.

“The proposal to establish a special court and extend the EU law mission is Kosovo’s chance to advance justice and individual accountability for very serious crimes”, Lotte Leicht, EU director at Human Rights Watch, said on Friday.