Kosovo and international authorities should act in concert to halt the recent wave of attacks and harassment targeting Roma communities, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said today. The action should include both speedy investigations leading to identification and prosecution of the perpetrators and measures to prevent any future attacks.

The Kosovo authorities need to work with international donors to close lead-contaminated camps occupied by internally displaced Roma without delay, relocate their inhabitants, and provide medical treatment for lead poisoning.

Kosovo’s president and prime minister should forcefully condemn recent threats against the independent journalist Jeta Xharra in a newspaper that receives substantial advertising revenues from the government.

A BBC investigation has revealed powerful evidence that the separatist ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) maintained a network of detention facilities in Kosovo and Albania, where it held both ethnic Serbs, Roma, Albanian and other captives. The investigation follows credible allegations in the book The Hunt, by Carla del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, about the abduction and cross-border transfer of around 400 ethnic Serbs and other captives from Kosovo to northern Albania after the withdrawal of Serbian forces on June 1999. Read More >>

The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, which began its work across Kosovo on December 9, 2008, should urgently investigate and prosecute longstanding cases of ethnically motivated crimes and remedy the major structural deficiencies in the justice system.

Human Rights Watch has been engaged in monitoring human rights abuses and accountability efforts in Kosovo for more than a decade. In that context, we would like to bring to your attention to what we assess to be key priorities for the successful implementation of EULEX’s mandate.

President George W. Bush should use his meeting with Kosovo’s prime minister to press for improvements to its poor human rights record, Human Rights Watch said today. Bush is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu in Washington, DC, on Monday, July 21.

If Pristina investigated the fate of more than 400 missing non-Albanians in Kosovo, it would prove it cared for all its citizens, regardless of ethnicity. When Carla Del Ponte’s book hit the media last month, coverage predictably highlighted her allegations concerning the possible trafficking of prisoners’ organs from a mysterious yellow house near the Albanian town of Burrel. While Serbian officials exaggerated the claims, officials in Pristina and Tirana called them a slanderous lie.

Additional information has emerged that bolsters allegations of abductions and cross-border transfers from Kosovo to Albania after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war, Human Rights Watch said today. The Kosovar and Albanian governments should open independent and transparent investigations to help resolve the fate of approximately 400 Serbs who went missing after the war.

As you know, Human Rights Watch has long documented violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Balkans. For almost two decades, we have been active in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia, investigating human rights abuses committed by all sides and publishing numerous reports detailing violations. We have repeatedly called for violations to cease or, where there were credible but as yet unconfirmed allegations, to be investigated, and for the responsible individuals to be prosecuted. I am writing to you now to urge that a thorough investigation be carried out into allegations of atrocities committed during 1999 that have recently been placed into the public sphere.

As you know, Human Rights Watch has long documented violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Balkans. For almost two decades, we have been active in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Macedonia, investigating human rights abuses committed by all sides and publishing numerous reports detailing violations. We have repeatedly called for violations to cease or, where there were credible but as yet unconfirmed allegations, to be investigated, and for the responsible individuals to be prosecuted. I am writing to you now to urge that a thorough investigation be carried out into allegations of atrocities committed during 1999 that have recently been placed into the public sphere.

Kosovo’s government should fully cooperate with the European Union’s newly deployed rule-of-law mission in reforming Kosovo’s criminal justice system that remains extremely weak, despite efforts to strengthen it over the past two years, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The EU mission (known as “EULEX”) is expected to lead justice reform efforts. The riots in Mitrovica on March 17, 2008, underscore the need for Kosovo to build a strong and effective criminal justice system to deter, investigate and prosecute any such acts of violence.

The new European Union-led international mission to Kosovo must be subject to much greater scrutiny and accountability than its predecessor, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), if it is to succeed, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee said today. The NATO-led Kosovo Force should also be subject to much greater scrutiny.

As Kosovo is poised to declare independence, the new government and its international partners should build a state based on democratic principles and the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said in a seven-point human rights agenda for Kosovo issued today. The European Union-led mission charged with stabilizing the breakaway province once it secedes from Serbia should take urgent steps to prevent human rights abuses, particularly against minorities and women.

I am writing on behalf of Human Rights Watch to ask you to re-open the selection procedure for the post of Ombudsperson, in order to ensure that the person selected has the proper qualifications for this important, independent role.

The future European Union-led international mission to Kosovo must subject its human rights record to much greater scrutiny and accountability than its United Nations predecessor if it is to succeed, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. EU foreign ministers are likely to discuss the future mission at the general affairs council meeting in Luxembourg on June 18-19.

The criminal justice system continues to fail victims in Kosovo, despite almost seven years of international administration, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Kosovo’s future status is currently the subject of intense negotiations mediated by the international community.

The United Nations-administered province of Kosovo has just seen what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has termed as the worst ethnic clashes since 1999. In this joint statement the organizations call on the European Union and its member states to stop involuntary returns to Kosovo, in accordance with the latest UNHCR guidance, and permit reconsideration of claims by those who have accepted voluntary return.

(New York, March 19, 2004) — NATO peacekeepers and United Nations police must make the protection of the minority communities in Kosovo the top priority in the province, Human Rights Watch said today. Ethnic violence in Kosovo has left 31 dead and as many as 500 people wounded since Wednesday.

Following the arrest of three Kosovar Albanians indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) by NATO forces, Human Rights Watch said today that the event is an important step for the cause of justice in the Balkans.

As researchers for Human Rights Watch in Kosovo, we solemnly went about our work, taking photographs and interviewing surviving members of the Delijaj family. Journalists in the Balkans often asked me whether there would be justice for murders like these. I had always assured them there would be, hoping my enthusiasm would make it a reality. But in truth, I never let myself believe that Slobodan Milosevic would be arrested. I never thought then, standing in the forest, that one day I would face Yugoslavia's former president in court.

Since the beginning of the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav media have been flooded with praise for Milosevic's defense. If you were relying on this commentary alone, you would have to conclude that Milosevic is getting the better of the tribunal prosecutors.

Slobodan Milosevic will be confronted with charges of genocide before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague today. Genocide, crimes committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, or religious group, is the most serious offense under international law.

Individuals who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity continue to hold high positions in the Serbian government and police force, and the Yugoslav army. HRW's 593-page report, "Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo," uses statistical methods and comprehensive field research to document the torture, killings, rapes, and forced expulsions of Kosovar Albanians committed by forces under the command of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his inner circle of political and military leaders between March 24 and June 12, 1999, the period of NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia.

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his inner circle of political and military leaders are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo, Human Rights Watch said today, three days before Milosevic's next hearing at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Commanding officers bear criminal responsibility for a pattern of gang-rapes by Serbian and Yugoslav forces in Kosovo during the NATO bombing campaign, Human Rights Watch said in a report Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia
Kosovo: Rape as a weapon of "ethnic cleasing".