War Crimes Prosecutors, EU Mission Target Kosovar Ex-President In Pristina Operation

PRISTINA — Prosecutors for The Hague-based war crimes investigators are carrying out special operations in the Kosovar capital that began early on November 4 in cooperation with local police and the EU’s rule-of-law mission.

Police and investigators have been at the home of a former acting president and onetime Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) senior member, Jakup Krasniqi, since around dawn.

A brief announcement on the website of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) did not explain the goals of the operations.

“More information will follow in due course,” the offices said.

The Kosovar government said it was following the conduct of the operations.

“Kosovo, the bearers of institutions, as well as its citizens have consistently set an example of respect and cooperation with local and international justice,” the government in Pristina said. “The presumption of innocence must be respected in any case unless there is another decision of the competent court.”

Krasniqi was questioned by SPO officials in July 2019.

His wife, Sevdije Krasniqi, told RFE/RL that the authorities did not explain the operation and that she did not know why the investigators were at their home.

Krasniqi’s political party, the Social Democratic Initiative, responded to the events by saying, “the scenes today are unnecessary and traumatic for the family,” adding that Krasniqi had always complied with requests from judicial institutions.

The KSC and SPO were set up under Kosovar law outside the country to help probe possible atrocities during and after the Kosovar war of independence in 1998-99, and their operations are supported by Kosovo’s police and EULEX.

They are focused on alleged crimes committed by UCK members against ethnic minorities and political rivals during Kosovo’s violent separation from Serbia.

The SPO announced in June that President Hashim Thaci and other prominent Kosovars were the subject of an indictment on suspicion of serious crimes, including “nearly 100 murders,” enforced disappearances, and torture.

It reportedly had less than six months to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to bring cases to trial, a deadline that appears to have expired.

Two weeks ago, The Hague offices said that “there is good reason to believe” the president had been acting as part of a “larger strategy to undercut the court.”

Thaci has proposed amendments to Kosovar law that would give lawmakers there the power to extend the mandate of the KSC for another five years.

Kosovar’s independence war with Serbia left more than 10,000 people dead — most of them ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. More than 1,600 people remain unaccounted for. The fighting ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbia.

Last month the KSC and SPO made their first arrest, detaining the former head of the intelligence service of the Kosovo Security Force, Salih Mustafa, on the basis of an arrest warrant and a confirmed indictment issued by a pretrial judge of the KSC.