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I’ve now had a chance to at least skim the charges
against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, and other KLA leaders indicted
by the Specialist Chambers in The Hague. While triggered by the
Marty report, the Specialist Chambers have adopted an expansive
definition of the crimes they were investigating. I can’t even be
sure from the redacted indictment whether it includes charges
related to the organ-trafficking Marty alleged without, he himself
admitted, sufficient evidence to stand up in court. If those crimes
at the “yellow house” in northern Albania are included in this
indictment, they are a small part of the whole.
What the court has done is to charge the KLA
leadership with being a joint criminal enterprise that intentionally
committed many and widespread war crimes and crimes against
humanity. The victims were non-combatant civilian “opponents,” whose
ethnic identity is not specified but clearly include Albanians as
well as Serbs.
There will be many people in Serbia and some in
Kosovo who rejoice at this indictment. The crimes, sometimes
according to the indictment itself committed in the aftermath of
Serb abuses against civilians, were apparent at the time of the war
and in its aftermath. What the prosecutor seeks to show is that the
criminality was not spontaneous or undisciplined behavior but rather
an organized, concerted effort directed by the top KLA leadership.
Many of the details are redacted in the public
version of the indictment, but some will presumably become public as
the court proceeds with witnesses and other evidence. The defense
will deny the charges. We’ll then all have a chance to judge for
ourselves the validity of the prosecutor’s portrait of the KLA,
But what is already clear is the one-sided
character of this judicial effort. Holding people accountable for
war crimes and crimes against humanity has to be welcomed, but to do
it for the KLA and not the Serbian security forces, which killed
many more civilians than the KLA, is cockeyed. It is difficult not
to see the current charges as part of a dramatic American tilt in
Serbia’s direction and against Kosovo. While the Specialist Chambers
pre-date President Trump, the current prosecutor was a Trump
selection.
There were already three trials of Serbs at the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia involving
Kosovo. Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic died before his
was completed. In the two others, six high officials of Yugoslavia
and Serbia were convicted. They too were charged with a joint
criminal enterprise, one aimed against Kosovo’s Albanians that
explicitly sought to change the ethnic composition of the
population.
If I read the Specialist Chambers’ mandate
correctly, it does have jurisdiction over Serbian perpetrators in
Kosovo during the period 1 January 1998-31 December 2000, though the
Serbian parliament, unlike the Kosovo Assembly, has not agreed. The
prosecutor’s claim to being fair would be much stronger if he had
filed charges as well against Serbian commanders active in Kosovo
during that time. There are commanders who were directly responsible
for war crimes in Kosovo, and for the murder of three American
Albanians in Serbia shortly after the war, who are still enjoying
prominent positions in Serbian politics and the security forces.
Whether Serb or Albanian, those charged are
innocent until proven guilty, at least in court. But in the public
mind the KLA will be tarred by these proceedings while the Serbs
will be seen in Kosovo as getting off. Even those Albanians who
opposed violence at the time–and were potential victims according to
this indictment–will feel compelled to defend resistance to Serbian
abuses. The political impact in both Serbia and Kosovo could be
substantial. Let us hope it will be in favor of greater mutual
understanding and reconciliation, but I have my doubts.
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