The Hague-based Specialist Prosecutor’s Office wants to question the Kosovo Intelligence Agency’s (AKI) General Inspector, Burim Ramadani, over alleged wartime and post-war crimes carried out by the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
“Ramadani has been ordered to appear as a witness for questioning on a specified date and has been asked to provide details of his physical and geographical location during the war and provide documents, including photos and other data, from January 1, 1998, until December 31, 2000,” read a press release by AKI.
“Ramadani is fully aware of his obligations in such cases and believes that this is a technical error and as such will be clarified in due course,” AKI continued.
Ramadani was appointed AKI General Inspector in November 2019. Before he took on the role, he was a senior member of ex-Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj’s Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AKK), and served as an MP and Deputy Minister for the Security Forces.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) was set up in the Hague to question individuals and try crimes allegedly committed between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2000, by or against citizens of Kosovo or then-Yugoslavia. The Chambers form part of Kosovo’s judicial system, but are located in the Netherlands and staffed by an international team.
Last month, a number of Kosovo public figures paid an official visit to the KSC, including Kosovo Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu; the Vice President of the Parliament of Kosovo, Saranda Bogujevci; Chairperson of the Committee on Legislation, Adnan Rrustemi; Member of Parliament of Kosovo, Erxhan Galushi; and the Kosovo Ambassador Dren Doli.
The KSC were established under an international agreement ratified by the Kosovo assembly, with Kosovo’s Western allies claiming that Kosovo’s judicial system lacked the capability to try KLA cases and protect witnesses. Those in support of the Courts’ establishment said they were a means of providing justice and reconciliation between Albanians and Serbs.
Instead, the KSC are largely resented by Kosovo Albanians, who view the Courts as unfair, and an insult to the KLA’s fight for independence from Serbian rule. In this way, they have contributed to a scholarly consensus on the need for legitimacy and local ownership.
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