Kosovo War Crimes Witness Intimidation And Deaths
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Kosovo War Crimes Witness Intimidation And Deaths
War crimes witnesses to the Kosovo War (1998–99) have been victims to threats, violence, and murder. Those who spoke out about the abuses of their side in the conflict were seen as traitors to their community, and therefore, only a few became witnesses in war crime trials. The international institutions ICTY, UNMIK and EULEX, and national courts in Serbia and Kosovo, have all had problems in ensuring safety for testifying protected witnesses. According to observers, one of the main reasons that the Kosovo Relocated Specialist Judicial Institution will partly operate outside Kosovo is the past failures of the international institutions to protect witnesses. According to Carla Del Ponte, the former ICTY prosecutor, "the investigation of the Kosovo Liberation Army fighters appeared to be the most frustrating of all the investigations done by the ICTY," and stated "witnesses were so afraid and intimidated that they even feared to talk about the KLA presence in some areas, not to ment ...
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Kosovo War
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanians, Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo. The KLA was formed in the early 1990s to fight against Serbian persecution of Kosovo Albanians, with the goal of uniting Kosovo into a Greater Albania. It initiated its first campaign in 1995 when it launched attacks against Serbian law enforcement in Kosovo. In June 1996, the group claimed responsibility for acts of sabotage targeting Kosovo police stations, during the Insurgency in Kosovo (1995–1998), Kosovo Insurgency. In 1997, ...
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Fatmir Limaj
Fatmir Limaj (born 4 February 1971), is a Kosovo-Albanian politician. He is the leader of ''Nisma për Kosovën''. Limaj served as Minister of Transport and Telecommunication in the government of the Republic of Kosova. He was known as "Çeliku" during the Yugoslav wars. Biography Fatmir Limaj is a politician from Banjë, a village in Malishevë, Kosovo. During the 1999 Kosovo War, Limaj was a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), in the Lapušnik area.http://www.icty.org/x/cases/limaj/cis/en/cis_limaj_al_en.pdf His alias was ''Çeliku''. After the war he was one of the founders of what is now Kosovo's largest political party, the Democratic Party of Kosovo. After his indictment, which he was freed from in 2007 ( see below), he has returned to politics. In the elections held in December 2010 he was third most voted leader in the whole country but he decided not to be part of the government. Limaj was charged of another war crime case by European Union Rule of La ...
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Witness Tampering
Witness tampering is the act of attempting to improperly influence, alter or prevent the testimony of witnesses within criminal or civil proceedings. Witness tampering and reprisals against witnesses in organized crime cases have been a difficulty faced by prosecutors; witness protection programs were one response to this problem. United States In the United States, the federal crime of witness tampering is defined by statute at , which is entitled "tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant." The statute is broad; the '' Justice Manual'' notes that it "proscribes conduct intended to illegitimately affect the presentation of evidence in Federal proceedings or the communication of information to Federal law enforcement officers" and applies to tampering with witnesses in "proceedings before Congress, executive departments, and administrative agencies, and to civil and criminal judicial proceedings, including grand jury proceedings." Witness tampering is a crime even if a ...
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Mechanism For International Criminal Tribunals
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, also referred to as the IRMCT or the Mechanism, is an international court established by the United Nations Security Council in 2010 to perform the remaining functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) following the completion of those tribunals' respective mandates. Background In the early 1990s, the United Nations Security Council established two criminal courts whose purpose was to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The first of these courts was the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established in 1993 to investigate crimes committed during the Yugoslav Wars. The second court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), was established the following year to address crimes committed during the Rwandan ...
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Klečka Killings
The Klečka killings were the mass murder of 22 Kosovo Serb civilians, including children, allegedly by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) over a period of several days in July 1998, during the Kosovo War. After the killings, it was alleged that members of the KLA attempted to dispose of the massacre-victims by incinerating their remains in a lime kiln. The Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the killings as a "Nazi-style crime." Klečka, a village located approximately 40 kilometers southwest of Pristina, was a significant logistics and training base for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the summer of 1998. Serbian police took Klečka from the Kosovo Liberation Army on 27 August 1998 after heavy fighting. Afterwards, they quickly gave access to television crews and foreign correspondents, claiming that twenty-two Serb civilians had been killed in the village in the previous month. They alleged that after the killings occurred, members of the KLA attempted ...
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Humanitarian Law Center
Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) ( sr-Latn, Fond za Humanitarno pravo, sq, Fondi për të Drejtën Humanitare) is a non-governmental organisation with offices in Belgrade, Serbia, and Pristina, Kosovo.Humanitarian Law Center website
, accessed 22 January 2011
It was founded in 1992 by to document violations across the former Yugoslavia in armed conflicts in ,



Jelle Janssens
Jelle is a Dutch male given name, rarely also given to women. The origin of the name lies in Friesland, although the name is quite commonly used throughout the Netherlands and Flanders. The name comes from the Dutch word "geld", more probable the Frisian word "jild", meaning "money", "value", "payment", "revenge", or "festival of sacrifice". In the southern Netherlands, Jelle is also an abbreviation for Willem. People *Jelle Bakker (born 1983) International Dutch Youtuber and artist *Jelle De Beule (born 1980), Belgian comedian * Jelle de Bock (born 1988), Belgian football player *Jelle Taeke de Boer (1908–1970), Dutch art collector *Jelle Faber (1924–2004), Canadian theologian * Jelle Florizoone (born 1995), Belgian actor *Jelle Goes (born 1970), Dutch football manager *Jelle Klaasen (born 1984), Dutch darts player *Jelle Nijdam (born 1963), Dutch cyclist *Jelle Reyners (1600–1634), Dutch painter *Jelle ten Rouwelaar (born 1980), Dutch football player * Jelle ...
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Charles Hardaway
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "free man". The Old English descendant of this word was '' Ċearl'' or ''Ċeorl'', as the name of King Cearl of Mercia, that disappeared after the Norman conquest of England. The name was notably borne by Charlemagne (Charles the Great), and was at the time Latinized as ''Karolus'' (as in ''Vita Karoli Magni''), later also as '' Carolus''. Some Germanic languages, for example Dutch and German, have retained the word in two separate senses. In the particular case of Dutch, ''Karel'' refers to the given name, whereas the noun ''kerel'' means "a bloke, fellow, man". Etymology The name's etymology is a Common Germanic noun ''*karilaz'' meaning "free man", which survives in English as churl (< Old English ''ċeorl''), which developed its depr ...
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Ramush Haradinaj
Ramush Haradinaj (; born 3 July 1968) is a Kosovo Albanian politician, leader of the AAK party, and the third prime minister of Kosovo. He is a former officer and leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and previously served as Prime Minister of Kosovo between 2004 and 2005. Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Haradinaj was the KLA's commander for western Kosovo. Following the conflict, Haradinaj went into politics but soon resigned after becoming one of the KLA commanders charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with war crimes and crimes against humanity against Serbs, Romani and Albanians between March and September 1998 during the Kosovo War. He was acquitted of all charges on 3 April 2008. The prosecution appealed against the acquittal and argued that it was not given enough time to secure the testimony of two critical witnesses. In 2010 the Appeals Chamber agreed and ordered a partial retrial in The Hague, Netherlands. The re- ...
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Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA; , UÇK) was an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo, the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia during the 1990s. Albanian nationalism was a central tenet of the KLA and many in its ranks supported the creation of a Greater Albania, which would encompass all Albanians in the Balkans, stressing Albanian culture, ethnicity and nation. Throughout its existence the KLA was designated as a terrorist group by FRY. Military precursors to the KLA began in the late 1980s with armed resistance to Yugoslav police trying to take Albanian activists in custody.. By the early 1990s there were attacks on police forces and secret-service officials who abused Albanian civilians. By mid-1998 the KLA was involved in frontal battle though it was outnumbered and outgunned. Conflict escalated from 1997 onward due to the Yugoslavian army retaliating with a crackdown ...
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Threat
A threat is a communication of intent to inflict harm or loss on another person. Intimidation is a tactic used between conflicting parties to make the other timid or psychologically insecure for coercion or control. The act of intimidation for coercion is considered as a threat. Threatening or threatening behavior (or criminal threatening behavior) is the crime of intentionally or knowingly putting another person in fear of bodily injury. "Threat of harm generally involves a perception of injury...physical or mental damage...act or instance of injury, or a material and detriment or loss to a person." Some of the more common types of threats forbidden by law are those made with an intent to obtain a monetary advantage or to compel a person to act against their will. In most US states, it is an offense to threaten to (1) use a deadly weapon on another person; (2) injure another's person or property; or (3) injure another's reputation. Law Brazil In Brazil, the crime of threateni ...
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Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte (born February 9, 1947) is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in August 1999, replacing Louise Arbour. In 2003, the U.N. Security Council removed Del Ponte as the Prosecutor for the ICTR, and replaced her there with Hassan Bubacar Jallow following pressure from Rwanda's president Kagame who was obstructing her efforts to investigate crimes by Tutsi. She remained the Prosecutor for the ICTY until 1 January 2008, when she was succeeded by Serge Brammertz. Del Ponte was formerly married, and has one son. Del Ponte served as Swiss ambassador to Argentina from 2008 to February 2011. Early life and education Del Ponte was born in Bignasco, Switzerland, in 1947. Her first language is Italian and she speaks fluent German, Frenc ...
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