UNMIK ON AIR
Weekend edition July 26 2003
Hello and welcome to
the weekend edition of UNMIK on AIR with…...
On the programme today
A recent meeting
of representatives of the 5 QUINT countries in Kosovo expressed strong support
for dialogue between Prishtina and Belgrade
And
The Serbian Parliament
approves war crimes legislation, clearing the way for local prosecution of war
crimes suspects.
Music up and under
But we begin with the
aftermath of the Rustom Mustafa trial – Last week’s
verdict against Rustem Mustafa known as Commander Remi and three other senior
former KLA officers was the first time KLA members were convicted of war crimes
in Kosovo.
A
panel of international judges handed down a total of 45 years to the four men,
including a 17-year jail sentence for Commander Remi for
ordering the torture and murder of five Kosovo Albanians suspected of
collaborating with Serb officials during the war. The verdict sparked protests
and criticism in Kosovo with accusations of double standards on the part of the
international judiciary and as undermining Kosovo’s freedom movement.
International officials insist the trial was fair and
based on hard evidence. Neeraj Singh, UNMIK’s Justice Department spokesman
dismisses charges of double standards, or that these men were given higher
sentences than they should have been given.
CUT 1 - What we
have seen are some isolated acts of criminal attacks on police and justice
targets. That obviously is coming from a small group of people who do not
represent the larger masses of Kosovo. So the public response I think is in
favor of a fair justice system we have established here.
LINK: The problem is that ex KLA fighters are
considered to be war heroes in Kosovo and the struggle they waged as part of
the freedom movement – hardly surprising then that the verdict sparked such
strong reactions here. Nonetheless, argues Behxhet Shala, executive director of
the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, despite the fact that
the 1999 war was a war of liberation, public opinion must accept that anyone
who committed a crime is accountable, no matter what his rank or which ethnic
group he belongs to.
CUT
2 – Absolutely, if it is proved that
somebody has helped a crime to be committed or has not prevented crimes against
civilians, then they cannot avoid responsibility and they will face justice. A
crime does not have an ethnic affiliation. Everybody who has committed crimes
should be responsible, no matter what position they occupied, or regardless
whether they were Albanians, Serbs or others.
Serbian
officials have so far remained tightlipped about the verdict, though Belgrade
has long pushed for both The Hague Tribunal and UNMIK prosecutors to
indict former KLA leaders on war crimes charges. Vladimir Bozovic is with the
Belgrade Coordination center for Kosovo.
CUT
3 Vladimir Bozovic – I think it’s of utmost importance that
indictments are issued against Albanian political and military leaders, former
KLA commanders, who have now entered political life. (That opportunity was
missed to accuse them of very serious war crimes, which were committed.)
Against their subordinates too, who followed their orders, and finally against
those who actually executed the orders.
LINK:
But Serbia too has much to do in order to clean up its act, argues Bedzet
Shala. Serbs, he says, have never clearly distanced themselves from what
happened in Kosovo, as well as in Bosnia and Croatia.
But
so do Kosovo Albanians, he adds, and that those who have knowledge about a
crime do not have the right to remain silent.
And
it appears that a growing number of K Albanians distinguish between standing by
the KLA and its struggle and condoning war crimes against civilians. Fadilj
Lepaja is a prominent PDK official and heads Balkans Institute in Pristina.
CUT
4 – No one would criminalize the war
led by the KLA. That army was an ally to the biggest military alliance in the
world. If someone individually committed a crime, he should be punished. (– Personally I think that this issue should
not be opened between us, it should be opened by other sides, neutral ones.)
The issue of war crimes is not political, it is a legal issue, and those who
committed crimes should be brought to court. Not a national court, but an
international one, because such crimes are punishable by international
laws.
LINK:
The current storm over the Remi trial will probably die down as people grapple
with day-to-day problems. International judges meanwhile will continue to
function according to the terms of their mandate.
Music
up and under
LINK: Countries from the former Yugoslavia are
expected to go after lower profile war crimes suspects, while major suspects
are prosecuted directly by the Hague Tribunal, (ICTY). Little headway has been
made so far but Serbia’s new draft law to set up a special war crimes
prosecution office to cover the whole of Serbia is a step in the right
direction..
Veteran
Belgrade based human rights
activist Natasa
Kandic welcomes the new legislation because
she says Serbia still has a long way to go before becoming a normal democratic
society.
CUT 5 -The special
war crimes prosecution office will be totally independent. The prosecutor will
have autonomy and independence in his decision-making. However, demands from
experts for a special investigation unit have been rejected. (edit to) Special units from the Serbian interior
ministry will conduct the inquiry into both organized crime and war crimes.
LINK: Behxhet Shala, executive director of the Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Prishtina feels that things are slowly changing for the better in Serbia, he remains unconvinced by this new draft law
CUT
6 - The fact that some people who were involved or who directly took part in
committing crimes against civilians in Kosovo have been arrested is a step
forward, but this has more to do with propaganda than delivering justice..
Sentences so far in Serbia are symbolic, very low sentences
LINK: Serbia has long been accused of not cooperating
sufficiently with the ICTY - one of the most wanted fugitives, Ratko Mladic,
the former Bosnian Serb military leader is still believed to be hiding in
Serbia. Other war crimes suspects are also alleged to be at large and even
sometimes, part of government structures. Natasha Kandic
is skeptical that higher-ranking army or police officials will in fact face
prosecution.
CUT
7 - There are trials, but not against
those who ordered those actions or who were in command. And at this moment, it
is hard to imagine that the special war crimes prosecution office will
have the competency and power to accuse those who occupy high-level functions.
Do not forget that there are still many senior officials suspected of
involvement in violations of international humanitarian law.
LINK:
All is not bleak however - things are
moving forward in Serbia, says Natasha Kandic, citing the Sjeverin case, when
17 Sandzak Muslims were kidnapped and killed and the 1999 Podujevo massacre.
Police, for the first time, provided evidence in the Sjeverin case. Similarly, during the retrial of the
Podujevo case, the public was given the opportunity to head first hand evidence
about the events of March 28th
1999 in Podujevo.
CUT 8 -That was
the first chance for truth, about what happened on that March 28th,
to be heard in front of the Court. That truth from survivors, children and
their parents is terrifying. Everybody in the Courtroom was touched deeply
because it is hard to imagine that something like that happened. So cruel, so
brutal.
LINK:
So cruel, so brutal. Those words could be repeated for so many crimes. The mass
grave of Kosovo Albanians in Batajnica for example, or the Ovcara case, when
200 Croat civilians were killed in Vukovar hospital. Authorities say these horrific incidents will be amongst the
first to be taken up by the newly formed special prosecution office. It remains
to be seen whether they keep their word.
Music
up and under
A
recent meeting in in Prishtina which brought together representatives of the
socalled Quint group of nations – France, Germany, Britain, Italy and the US
stressed the strong public support for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
The Quint group left no room for doubt that democratic standards must be
fulfilled before opening the issue of Kosovo’s political status.
According
to Victoria Whitford, political secretary in the British office in Pristina,
London and the EU have been urging for direct dialogue for a long time. The
problem was that neither Belgrade nor Pristina were ready until now to start
the dialogue, on the grounds that their public opinion would not see such a
move as a positive step. That perception has now changed she says with both
sides now apparently convinced that the time for direct talks has finally come.
CUT
9 –In the last six months there has
been lot of public debate about dialogue and the benefits the dialogue would
bring. The normalization in Kosovo is in everybody’s interest. And what the
normalization means – the practical and friendly links with your neighbors at
all levels, between villages, municipalities, territories and regions. It means
trade and cooperation with your neighbors and I think the public has become
aware of those benefits. And since public opinion has changed, politicians now
feel that they are able to enter into dialogue, which before they felt would be
dangerous for them.
LINK:
Speaking to UNMIK ON AIR before his departure, the head of the US office in
Pristina Reno Harnish stressed that Washington and the EU saw eye to eye on the
need for democratic dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. But he cautions, the process should be given
the time it needs since the talks need to be well prepared.
CUT 10 - I can’t speak about Belgrade, but I know the
people here – I think they need to form a common platform, politically, and
also to get their specific goals in mind for the talks. Then I think it’d be
very practical and an achievement for both the people in Serbia and Kosovo to
smooth out matters like cadastral records, which need to be returned if private
property is to be made here. Or to smooth out the question of KS license
plates. But there should be clear goals on both sides. People should not just
sit down to sit down. SO, if that doesn’t happen until September or some other
day, that’s not crucial. We know that politically everyone wants to discus and
now it’s just a matter of doing it in the right way.
LINK:
Talks will not focus exclusively on Kosovo’s final status, adds Victoria
Whitford but it’ll be a dialogue about particular issues of mutual interest,
and UN, EU and USA will be there to support and forward the process, said..
LINK:
There are many on both sides who now realize there is no alternative to
dialogue and that some sort of compromise has to be reached in order to have a
better future. Direct talks between Prishtina and Belgrade are now set to start
as soon as new the UNMIK chief is appointed. The two sides have no choice but
to talk, adds Victoria Whitford of the British Office, if they really want to
be part of the European family.
CUT
12 – The quicker we start the
dialogue and the quicker we start confidence measures then the quicker the
problem of Kosovo will be solved. If Serbia is going to join EU then it needs
to have a normal dialogue with its neighbors, and that includes Kosovo. So the
sooner we can have real confidence measures in place, the sooner Kosovo and its
leaders can meet the standards, then the sooner Kosovo and Serbia proper would
be in Europe.
And
with that we end this weekend edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks for listening.