Two decades after the end of the last war, 116 people have been accused of war crimes in Kosovo by the local judiciary, including the international missions, and 40 of them have been convicted, says the Humanitarian Law Fund in Pristina.
About 40 have been released, while 28 people have fled after the indictment, 24 of them Serbs.
They were convicted by local courts, including the international missions UNMIK and EULEX.
However, since May 13, 2015, the War Crimes Department was established within the Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo.
When more than five years have passed, seven indictments have been filed by the Special Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kosovo after the beginning of the acceptance of executive powers by the EULEX mission, two of the accused have been released and the others are still in the process.
Radio Free Europe has tried to get an answer from the Special Prosecutor's Office, but this institution of justice has not made a statement regarding this issue.
The legal analyst at the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Pristina, Amer Alija, tells Radio Free Europe that Kosovo's institutions should do more to punish those who commit crimes.
"The institutions in Kosovo should research and prepare as many cases as possible and try to arrest, through INTERPOL, the individuals who do not live in Kosovo and who are elusive for the justice bodies of Kosovo", says Alija.
Alija says that for this process to be easier, there should be cooperation between Kosovo and Serbia.
"Also, through the international community, it should be insisted that a healthy legal cooperation be established between Kosovo and Serbia, in the exchange of information that would help arrest and try as many perpetrators of war crimes in Kosovo as possible", he emphasizes.
Why has Kosovar justice failed?
Since the end of the war, in 1999, war crimes have been investigated by foreign judges and prosecutors, and from 2015, this role has been taken over by the institutions of Kosovo.
Lawyer Taulant Hodaj says that there are several reasons why the judiciary in Kosovo has not been effective in punishing those who committed crimes during the war.
"Local courts, the main problem - as well as prosecutors - have to punish or prosecute the perpetrators of criminal offenses that are within the scope of war crimes. It is the absence or lack of fair trials in absentia until now, although recently the law has been changed where the trial for war crimes can continue even in absentia", says Hodaj.
Likewise, another problem according to lawyer Hodaj is the lack of expertise, since there are no investigators and prosecutors with experience in war crimes investigations.
These and other issues, according to the lawyer Hodaj, have caused the need for a court like the Special Court, to deal with the alleged war crimes in Kosovo.
"The judiciary has lacked the will to confront potential Albanian perpetrators who may have committed war crimes. Likewise, the influence on witnesses and the lack of protection of witnesses was one of the reasons why the decision was taken to establish the Special Court", says Hodaj.
Not even Serbia has done better in punishing those who committed war crimes in Kosovo
Of the 40 people convicted in Kosovo for war crimes, 34 are Albanians, five Serbs and one Roma, say the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Pristina.
Much less has been done in Serbia regarding the punishment of those who committed crimes in the war of 1998-1999.
Since the end of the war in Kosovo, only 17 people have been tried in Serbia, two of them are Albanians.
For war crimes in Kosovo, two court proceedings were held in Montenegro and a Montenegrin was convicted.
In The Hague, six Serbs who held positions of military and political superiors were convicted for war crimes in Kosovo. Also, two former soldiers of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who held lower positions, were also punished.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor in The Hague is investigating alleged crimes committed by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army against ethnic minorities and political rivals from January 1998 to December 2000.
These alleged crimes are mentioned in a 2011 Council of Europe report authored by Swiss Senator Dick Marty.
On September 24, the Specialized Chambers in The Hague made public the indictment for war crimes against the former superior of the KLA in the area of Llap, Salih Mustafa.
Mustafa, who was arrested and sent to custody in The Hague, is accused by the Special Court (vj Specialized Chambers and the Office of the Specialized Prosecutor) of "arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful killing, as war crimes committed in the context of the non-international armed conflict in Kosovo, or in relation to that conflict".
The indictment against Mustafa states that "approximately between April 1, 1999 and April 19, 1999, in a detention complex in Zllash, Kosovo, the crimes of arbitrary detention, cruel treatment and torture were committed against at least six people."
The indictment also mentions that from April 19, 1999 until the end of that month, a detainee was killed in that location.
Otherwise, during the war in Kosovo, around 13,500 people lost their lives, while 1,600 are still considered missing./REL