HRW: Setting up of court - step forward for justice in KiM

BELGRADE / BRUSSELS - Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that the Kosovo government’s approval of a special court to investigate 1998-1999 war crimes committed by members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army KLA, former ethnic Albanian paramilitary organization, in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM), is a step forward for justice and the rule of law.

HRW said in a release on Thursday that the Kosovo parliament still has to approve the court's statute and pass certain amendments to make the court operational.

The Kosovo parlaiment approved both the special court and the EULEX mandate extension until 2016 on Wednesday.

HRW said that the special court for wartime abuses will adjudicate cases against individuals based on a 2010 Council of Europe report prepared by a Swiss senator, Dick Marty.

The Marty report accused some members of the KLA of abductions, beatings, summary executions, and in some cases, forced removal of human organs on Albanian territory during and after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war. It also named some individuals currently in the Kosovo government, including Prime Minister Hasim Thaci, HRW said.

The EU created a Special Investigative Task Force in 2011, headed by a US prosecutor, to investigate the alleged crimes in the Marty report. The task force has yet to release its findings but indictments are expected, the HRW release said.

Photo Tanjug, S.Radovanovic