FYROM reopens Albanian war crimes cases

[Crvena zvezda]

FYROM reopens war crimes cases 5 March 2008
FYROM will reopen investigations into crimes committed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas during the 2001 armed conflict there.

The main Albanian parties have criticized the decision.

The four cases were originally brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, were returned to the FYROM judiciary in mid February after the Hague Prosecutor’s Office decided not to proceed with them.

FYROMs decision to reopen them prompted the opposition Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, to call on the Public Prosecutor’s Office late Monday, to halt the move arguing it would violate the amnesty law which pardoned former guerrillas after the conflict.

“There is absolutely no legal basis for their reopening since the Hague tribunal has already decided not to treat them as crimes against humanity or war crimes”, the DUI spokesperson Ermira Mehmeti told media on Monday.

DUI was created by former guerrilla fighters and many of them also joined its rival, the Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, a junior partner in FYROMs ruling coalition, which also criticised the decision.

On Monday, the public prosecutor Ljupco Svrgovski reiterated his intent.

He confirmed for local A1 Television that one case involving the alleged kidnapping and torture of several construction workers will soon be put to trial and that 20 people will be charged.

“The prosecution cannot be withdrawn,” Svrgovski said, adding that the other three cases will be reinvestigated first.

The four cases were among five the ICTY took jurisdiction of, in 2002.

However, the prosecution brought charges only in the case against former FYROM Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski and one of his senior police officers, who are now being tried for allegedly ordering a brutal police attack on an Albanian-populated village.

Local politicians and experts in the past few years have expressed fears that the return of the four cases to FYROM could revive inter-ethnic disputes from the past and distract FYROM from its reform course towards the EU and NATO.

The conflict in FYROM lasted six months and ended with the signing of the Ohrid peace accord.

Following the accord, former Albanian guerrilla leaders assumed a political role by forming the DUI. Some of them have also joined the now ruling DPA.