Murder of an innocent

At about 2.30 p.m on 30 April 2001, 18-year-old Aleksandar Dodic was shot twice and killed whilst walking with his sister and a friend in the Vitina market place.

He was killed simply because he was a Serb. At the age of 18, he had his entire adult life in front of him. He was described as a young man full of promise, very popular and full of life.
In the course of the incident, one of the shots fired by the gunman by chance hit an Albanian man sitting in his car nearby causing him serious injuries.

Last month, at the Gjilan District Court, two young Kosovo Albanians were convicted of the murder and causing serious injury to the second victim and were each sentenced to 15 years in jail.
This case typifies a particular and terrible aspect of post-conflict society in Kosovo. All internationals who work in the judicial system in Kosovo will have had experience with similar cases. The problem of ethnic bias, both actual and perceived, is so deep rooted here that it is, of course, one of the principal reasons for the presence of international judges and prosecutors in Kosovo.

It could be argued that young people such as these defendants have grown up in an environment characterised by ethnic hatred and that they have been exposed, either directly or indirectly, to events that have desensitised them. Therefore, it is said, they may be much more ready to see such behaviour as at least acceptable, if not desirable. This may well be true, but the Kosovo society is not unique in this respect. History provides many illustrations of societies where ethnicity has been the source of violent conflict, and there are modern parallels elsewhere in the world.

Nonetheless, most societies have advanced beyond the point where this type of action can be tolerated. This can only be achieved by popular will. Until the vast majority of people feels they can confidently and publicly reject such crimes, there will continue to be occasions when others, like Aleksandar, will lose their lives.

To some, and surely to his family, Aleksandar's death may seem to have had little purpose. Certainly it is true that so much of what he had to offer lay in the future. Sadly his death is far from unique. However, there are reasons to believe that, albeit very gradually, improvement of a critical kind is taking place in the hearts and minds of ordinary citizens of Kosovo. The majority of people have a strong desire to lead positive and useful lives, and significantly this is most apparent in the young. Secondly, education is increasingly seen as the means by which people make progress, and education carries with it the benefits of increasing tolerance and broadmindedness. Thirdly, the continuing imposition of peace by KFOR and UNMIK, together with the establishment of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, carries the process forward since the passage of time is a subtle but surprisingly powerful factor in this process. If the eventual outcome is successful then possibly Aleksandar's family will be able to take some small comfort from the fact that others had spent a little of their own lives thinking of the qualities which he possessed and that the lessons from his death have not been wasted.

Timothy Clayson
International Judge