Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told KOSOVO / KOSOVA As Seen, As Told PART III : The violation of human rights in Kosovo (Chapter 10) Contents Previous Next VIOLATION OF THE RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL Background: trials in Kosovo Introduction A major human rights task of the OSCE-KVM while deployed in Kosovo was the monitoring of trials. At the time of its initial deployment, in late 1998, the trials of people facing charges relating to "terrorism" or "subversive activity" were far from being a new phenomenon in Kosovo. In previous years, groups of Kosovo Albanians were tried and convicted of such offences in a few instances per year (for example, three such trials were held in 1997), usually following waves of arrests carried out by the Serbian police. Two trials took place in the early months of 1998, albeit it was not until August 1998 that another similar case would be heard. 1 However, by May 1998 growing numbers of people were arrested, up to the point that, on the conclusion of the Milosevic-Holbrooke and Geremek-Jovanovic accord (see Chapter 1, Kosovo: the historic and political background), hundreds were awaiting trial, while others had been convicted and were serving prison sentences. The October 1998 accords contained provisions that could have been interpreted, at least in the view of the international community, as providing amnesty to the individuals awaiting trial, and a review of 2 sentence for those convicted prior to the accords. Overall, this resulted in a confused period when court proceedings scheduled to take place in late October and November 1998 were generally postponed while Presidents of Courts awaited instructions from Belgrade on the interpretation to be given to the accords. The Serbian Government reportedly decided that pending cases should be re-examined, which resulted in the release of a few individuals, but that the prosecution of the vast majority of the accused should proceed. As a result, by the time of the OSCE-KVM's deployment, Belgrade's instructions had 3 apparently been received and trials resumed in earnest in all of the district courts. Within the next few months, hundreds of individuals would stand trial - and mostly be convicted - for having participated in terrorist activities. The OSCE-KVM monitored a significant number of those trials, which most probably had a positive impact on some individual cases and on the overall conduct of http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch10.htm (1 of 18)12/5/2003 11:52:22 AM