Biden Fought for Justice in the Balkans. He Must Do it Again | Opinion Ivan Sascha Sheehan
, Executive Director, School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore On 3/4/21 at 8:00 AM EST
At last month s Munich Security Conference, President Joe Biden reassured European allies that America is back. Our interests will not always converge. . But we have a broad, common, good basis, Germany s Chancellor Angela Merkelcautioned.
Her declaration acknowledged a salient truth easily lost in the meeting s bonhomie: strains in the transatlantic relationship festered long before former President Donald Trump.
This is natural. Interests do diverge. But in the Western Balkans, these differences have grown into something contradictory and unsustainable.
The head of a special court investigating war crimes allegedly committed during Kosovo's war of independence has told EU diplomats that the court is facing increased efforts to impede ongoing legal proceedings.
Pristina, Kosovo. Photo: Owen Howells
The ghost of war continues to haunt Kosovan politics on a national and personal level across the political spectrum. Former commanders of the KLA continue to “wield enormous influence over former KLA members and Kosovo in general.” Lustration and the prosecution of war crimes is a troubling process too much and you risk destabilising a country, ridding it of the very people and skills required to rebuild. Whereas too little and the problems of the past and unresolved injustices will continue to dodge attempts to move forward long into the future.
It raises the question: do these indictments, so many years after the conflict, aid reconciliation? Or is the pursuit of justice, however honourable, hampering engagement efforts? On the surface, the latter would appear to be true. This latest turn saw Thaçi indicted whilst en route to Washington in order to sign a new limited economic cooperation agreement with Serbian President Aleksandar V
Backer Of Kosovar War Veterans Declines To Enter Plea At Hague Hearing
December 18, 2020 13:42 GMT
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December 18, 2020 14:29 GMT
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The deputy leader of an association of Kosovar war veterans declined to enter a plea before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on December 18 in a hearing related to witness endangerment and other charges in connection with investigations of possible war crimes.
Nasim Haradinaj accused the prosecutors of “selective, political, and biased prosecutions and trying to place the blame on Kosovo for atrocities during the former Yugoslav province s war of independence from Serbia in 1998-99.
Hysni Gucati, the head of the Kosovo War Veterans Association of which Haradinaj is vice president, pleaded not guilty to the same charges when he appeared at a separate hearing later on December 18.
The head of KLA War Veterans Association Gucati pleaded not guilty – Tirana Times tiranatimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tiranatimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.