Kosovo promised to cooperate with an EU led inquiry into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against minority Serb and Roma communities in the late 1990s.
The inquiry is led by the EU's Special Investigative Task Force (SITF), set up in 2011 to investigate allegations made by the Special Rapporteur of the Council of Europe including mass atrocities and that of organ harvesting from dead prisoners.
"Kosovo will fully co-operate with the SITF and the country's institutions will make the necessary legal and constitutional changes to establish the new special court," Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga was quoted by SE Times as saying.
"The government of Kosovo praises the conclusion of the work of Ambassador Williamson, which is an important step in the eventual definition of individual responsibility, and will provide an end to the pretentions of other un-proven allegations," Pristina said in a statement.
In a damning report released last month, STIF prosecutor, Clint Williamson echoed those allegations. Whilst he did not name the suspects, referring only to "senior officials of the former Kosovo Liberation Army", he is believed to have drawn up a list of individuals to be indicted, which includes those within the leading party and opposition.
“Horrible things happened and they need to be addressed,” Petrit Selimi, Kosovo's deputy foreign minister told the Economist.
Detailing crimes including "unlawful killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania, sexual violence, other forms of inhumane treatment, forced displacements of individuals from their homes and communities, and desecration and destruction of churches and other religious sites," the SITF report said:
The inquiry is led by the EU's Special Investigative Task Force (SITF), set up in 2011 to investigate allegations made by the Special Rapporteur of the Council of Europe including mass atrocities and that of organ harvesting from dead prisoners.
"Kosovo will fully co-operate with the SITF and the country's institutions will make the necessary legal and constitutional changes to establish the new special court," Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga was quoted by SE Times as saying.
"The government of Kosovo praises the conclusion of the work of Ambassador Williamson, which is an important step in the eventual definition of individual responsibility, and will provide an end to the pretentions of other un-proven allegations," Pristina said in a statement.
In a damning report released last month, STIF prosecutor, Clint Williamson echoed those allegations. Whilst he did not name the suspects, referring only to "senior officials of the former Kosovo Liberation Army", he is believed to have drawn up a list of individuals to be indicted, which includes those within the leading party and opposition.
“Horrible things happened and they need to be addressed,” Petrit Selimi, Kosovo's deputy foreign minister told the Economist.
Detailing crimes including "unlawful killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania, sexual violence, other forms of inhumane treatment, forced displacements of individuals from their homes and communities, and desecration and destruction of churches and other religious sites," the SITF report said:
"This effectively resulted in the ethnic cleansing of large portions of the Serb and Roma populations from those areas in Kosovo south of the Ibar river, with the exception of a few scattered minority enclaves."
"We believe that the evidence is compelling that these crimes were not the acts of rogue individuals acting on their own accord, but rather that they were conducted in an organised fashion and were sanctioned by certain individuals in the top levels of the KLA leadership. 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."