Kosovo promises to co-operate with war crimes investigation

Kosovo promises to co-operate with war crimes investigation

Indictments by an EU task force are expected to be filed once a special court is established next year.

Kosovo pledged to continue to work with the EU Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity committed after the 1999 Kosovo war.

SITF announced last week it will file indictments against senior former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) officials for such crimes.

Chief Prosecutor Clint Williamson said individual KLA leaders bear responsibility for a campaign of persecution against Serbs, Roma and other minorities as well as Kosovo Albanians who were their political opponents or suspected Serb collaborators.

Williamson said the campaign included unlawful killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania, sexual violence, other forms of inhumane treatment, forced displacements and destruction of religious shrines and sites.

"This effectively resulted in the ethnic cleansing of large portions of the Serb and Roma population from those areas in Kosovo south of the Ibar River. The widespread or systematic nature of these crimes in the period after the war ended in June 1999 justifies a prosecution for crimes against humanity," he said. Williamson said SITF has faced efforts to undermine the investigation in a climate of intimidation of witnesses that is still ongoing.

Williamson said SITF has not secured conclusive evidence on KLA involvement in human organs trafficking.

"I can say at this point there are compelling indications that this practice did occur on a very limited scale and that a small number of individuals were killed for the purpose of...