Reports speaks les of KLA, more of international community

The report of Chief Prosecutor of the Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) Clint Williamson concerning the crimes committed in Kosovo speaks far less about the former ethnic Albanian paramilitary unit known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) than about the actions of the international community in Kosovo, former head of the economics unit in the International Civilian Office in Kosovo Adrea Capussela said.

(kosovocompromisestuff) Friday, August 08, 2014

In a text published on Italian website L'Osservatorio sui Balcani, Capussela said that Williamson's report does not bring any news save for one point - the statement that the report by special rapporteur Dick Marty was correct, including the allegations about the harvesting of human organs.After the three-year investigation, SITF report concludes that brutal attacks were performed against almost all Serbs who wanted to stay in Kosovo after the 1999 clashes, adding that Kosovo Rome and Albanians who opposed KLA were also targeted by attacks. Such attacks resulted in the ethnic cleansing of a majority of the Serb and Roma population to the south of the Ibar River on instructions issued by KLA commanders, he notes.In addition to this, the report confirms that prosecutors of UNMIK, EULEX and Kosovo - with few exceptions - ignored the crimes since 1999, Capussela said.Nevertheless, the most important point in the report does not cover the statements about KLA and instead has to do with the implications concerning the actions conducted by the international community in Kosovo after the conflicts and construction of the state, the author says.The real question here is how the crimes against humanity could have taken place in the presence of 50,000 NATO soldiers - which means one soldier per 36 Kosovo citizens - which is the greatest number of peacekeeping officers recorded in history, Capussela asks.The incessant campaign of violence and intimidation which claimed a number of civilian lives and resulted in ethnic cleansing of a majority of the Serb and Roma population in southern Kosovo took place before the very eyes of soldiers, Capussela said. What were they doing while the campaign was raging, he asks, and what they were doing during the anti-Serb riots in 2004? Again, almost nothing, Capussela said.Recalling that the Dutch court recently admitted that the Netherlands is responsible for the failure of Dutch peacekeeping forces to protect the civilians in Srebrenica, Capussela asks whether the same principle should not apply in Kosovo.Are Paris, Berlin, Rome, London and Washington not equally to blame for promising safety to all Kosovo citizens and failing to provide it, Capussela says. Having allowed such crimes to occur, should the blame of the international community not be the same as theirs (Paris, Berlin, Rome, London and Washington) for failing to fully ensure any mode of justice to victims, he asks.Capussela recalled that the police and the judiciary were handled by the international community (UN and EU) since June 1999 to June 2014, and he goes on to ask how the community could have possibly allowed such a degree of impunity. How could have they allowed such a general atmosphere of intimidation to take root in Kosovo, Capussela asks.Why is it then so surprising that the KLA leaders, who are responsible for the crimes and managed to get away unpunished and are still allowed to intimidate witnesses, could retain military powers and transform it into criminal, political and economic power and as such become the ruling elite in Kosovo, Capussela asks.