Balkan Legal News - 10 November 2023

The following media round-up on international, legal and foreign policy issues from around the Balkans for the period from 03 November to 09 November 2023. Guernica 37 will provide weekly media updates with a focus on Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Should you wish to contribute or submit a media summary, opinion piece or blog, please send to Ned Vucijak at nenadv@guernica37.com for consideration.

Kosovo – 9 November 2023

Kosovo is setting up an institute to document Serbia’s crimes against its population in the 1998-1999 war, the country's prime minister said on Wednesday. Albin Kurti said the institute would document the war crimes so “the Kosovar Albanians’ tragic history suffered at the hands of criminal Serbia is more widely known;” see here.

Kosovo – 8 November 2023

A former Kosovo ambassador told the trial of ex-President Hashim Thaci and three co-defendants that he gave “exaggerated” testimony about the alleged beating of political opponents by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters in 1998; see here.

Kosovo – 8 November 2023

Kosovo’s Supreme Court confirmed the conviction of a Serb ex-policeman, Zoran Vukotic, for the rape and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians in the Kosovo town of Vushtrri/Vucitrn during the war in 1999; see here.

Kosovo – 8 November 2023

A former Kosovo ambassador told the trial of ex-President Hashim Thaci and three co-defendants that he gave “exaggerated” testimony about the alleged beating of political opponents by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters in 1998; see here.

Balkans – 8 November 2023

The European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi presented today the annual 2023 Enlargement Package to the members of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET). His main focus, when it came to Western Balkan candidates, was on Bosnia and Herzegovina, for which the European Commission recommended opening accession talks conditioned on the “necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria”; see here.

Albania – 7 November 2023

Seventeen victims of an explosion at an ammunition dump in Albania in 2008, including a couple whose seven-year-old child was killed, won their case at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg; see here.

Kosovo – 6 November 2023

The University of Pristina is offering Kosovo’s first-ever master’s degree programme focusing on transitional justice issues, aimed at helping the country address the legacy of the 1998-99 war; see here.

Kosovo – 3 November 2023

Isni Kilaj was arrested yesterday in Kosovo by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, pursuant to an arrest order issued by the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office. Isni Kilaj was transferred to the Detention Facilities of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague today pursuant to a transfer order issued by a Single Judge of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers; see here.