UNMIK/PR/396

PRESS RELEASE - 20 October, 2000

Department of Judicial Affairs Responds to OSCE Report

UNMIK's Department of Justice both respects and supports the monitoring mandate of the OSCE and views the OSCE report "Kosovo: A Review Of The Criminal Justice System, 1 February -31 July, 2000" of 18 October as a useful toll in identifying areas where more work is needed and as an important means of improving the justice system in Kosovo.

The OSCE report, nevertheless, fails to place its observations and criticism in the context of post-conflict Kosovo. Taking into account the historical, human and economic environment in which the Kosovo judiciary was set up is crucial in understanding the challenges UNMIK and the judicial system has faced throughout the past 14 months.

When compared to other developing democracies, the re-establishment of the criminal justice system Kosovo has been carried out in an exceptionally short period.

In June 1999, UNMIK undertook a huge responsibility with its mandate to administer Kosovo under Security Council Resolution 1244. The UNMIK Department of Justice was tasked with setting up an entire judiciary, as well as other aspects of a criminal justice system, where no precedents exited, where the personnel had not worked in a decade and where resources were completely insufficient.

The OSCE, which held the responsibility for institutional development, had no time to train a new generation or to re-train personnel whose last service had been under a legal system which is considered obsolete today.

The Kosovo judiciary began to work at the same time that it was being formed.
Reconstruction and rehabilitation of the judiciary came into effect only through practical implementation. Improvements were made as problems were discovered. For example, international judges and prosecutors were recruited when UNMIK's original plan for a completely indigenous judiciary failed to foresee the exodus of minorities who would have contributed to a multi-ethnic judiciary.

The OSCE report covers the period in which the justice system was in its infancy: In January-February 2000 the first group of judges and persecutors were appointed to the five District Courts, 17 Municipal Courts and 19 Minor Offence Courts. At that time, the court infrastructure was lacking the most basic equipment, and courtrooms were in desperate need of repair. Utilities were largely absent. The numbers of defense lawyers were completely inadequate.

Statistics from January-September 2000 demonstrate that the level of productivity of the justice system is increasing at an impressive pace. This data reflects a high rate of activity by all courts, but the District Courts in particular, where more than 500 criminal and civil trials have been competed, including war crimes trials.

Since the period which the OSCE report covers, 140 more judges and prosecutors have been sworn in, bringing the total number to 405. Nine international judges and three international prosecutors have been assigned to hear the most sensitive cases, with ethnic backgrounds, which has already reduced dramatically and chance of bias as charged in the OSCE report.
Within one month there should be 12 international judges and five prosecutors.

The OSCE report false failed to consider the additional tasks assigned the Department of Judicial Affairs, which also oversees the entire correctional system of Kosovo. By the end of this month, it will have assumed responsibility over five major penal institutions and a forensics institute. Today, in Fact, the detention center in Pec/Peja will be transferred from KFOR to the Department of Judicial Affairs' Kosovo Correctional Service.