HRW urges EULEX to urgently investigate crimes against Serbs
The Human Rights Watch asked Tuesday EULEX chief Yves de Kermabon to include the crimes committed against Kosovo Serbs in March 2004 among EULEX priorities and to urge Pristina to take part in investigating the trade in body parts of Serb civilians in 1999
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, December 17, 2008
EULEX should urgently investigate ethnically motivated crimes, HRW said in the letter to De Kermabon.
"Fear still reigns in Kosovo, and the first thing the EU can do to break that cycle is to convince witnesses in these longstanding cases to come forward by offering them shelter in EU countries," said Benjamin Ward, associate director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division.
"Showing people that the rule of law can operate effectively will help to change that poisonous atmosphere", the letter says.
"The limited progress in bringing to justice those responsible for ethnic violence in March 2004 attacks against ethnic Serbs and Roma in northern Kosovo is one of the justice system's most glaring failures", the letter says.
"The record of domestic war crimes prosecutions in Kosovo compares poorly with progress elsewhere in the region, notably in the war crimes chambers in Sarajevo and Belgrade", the letter says.
Human Rights Watch also urged the new mission to put pressure on Kosovo authorities to investigate recent credible allegations that Serbs and other prisoners were transferred to Albania in 1999.
"While the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has begun an inquiry, Kosovo authorities have categorically refused to investigate, despite the gravity of the accusations, and are unlikely to act without a clear signal from the EU that they should proceed", the letter says.
