The war in Kosovo is the latest offshoot of the Yugoslav conflict, which prompted the NATO bombing of Belgrade to stop Milosevic. Today, everything is told in a book by Benedetta Arrighini entitled “Kosovo. Between war crimes” (Kosovo 1998-1999, 276 pages, Giammarò, Oltre Edizioni, price 21 euros). The region (then State) was the scene of war crimes and crimes against humanity: impunity is inconceivable in the eyes of the international community, so the terrible violence that occurred in Kosovo became the responsibility of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The work of the Court in The Hague remains, in part, unfinished, however in 2011 a report had the opportunity to denounce very serious crimes committed by the commanders of the Uçk, such as forced disappearances and international organ trafficking. The alleged perpetrators are now at the top of the newborn Kosovar State. In light of these facts, in 2015 the Kosovo Specialist Chambers were co-established, composed of international judges and legitimized by the Kosovar Parliament; their mandate is to address international crimes committed in one of the least known wars in European history.
Why a Court? Why in Kosovo? But above all, will the work of this Court lead to a reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians? The essay tries to answer these questions by retracing Kosovo’s past and trying to imagine its future.
A work in which the author marries her two passions: jurisprudence and geopolitics, which led her to take an interest in the Balkans, so close and yet so little known in our country.
Arrighini has chosen perhaps the hottest area of the Balkan peninsula, Kosovo, a “non-state” recognized by 22 out of 27 European Union states (with the exception of Spain, Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia and Greece) and by 98 out of 193 UN countries. A territory claimed for centuries by Albanians and Serbs who, since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, have begun to fight each other again. A war that is not over yet, but which generated the NATO bombing of Belgrade in March 1999 to stop Slobodan Milošević, and subsequently, in the last thirty years, thousands of cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity, on both sides, which have required international intervention from a legal perspective. But the International Court in The Hague, which would have been competent, could do little. It should not be forgotten that this Court judged the great criminals of the former Yugoslavia such as Milošević, Karadžić, Mladić and that it was created thanks to the inventiveness and determination of a great Italian jurist, Antonio Cassese.
The Court paved the way by creating a jurisprudence that allowed the establishment of the “Kosovo Specialist Chambers” when, in 2011, the disappearances, the international organ trafficking, the arms trafficking, the summary executions perpetrated by the commanders of the Uçk (the Kosovo Liberation Army) were denounced. The “Kosovo Specialist Chambers” are tribunals composed of international judges and legitimized by the Parliament of Pristina with the mandate to judge international crimes committed in one of the least known wars in European history, Arrighini emphasizes. And this makes their operation extremely difficult.
You will immediately notice when reading that this text is not simple, because explaining the legal mechanisms that led to these Courts is complex and Arrighini does it with commendable precision. Furthermore, as the author herself reveals, she does not elevate herself to a “judging body that points the finger at one or another faction responsible for the crimes in Kosovo” but analyzes the situation (listing the crimes committed) so that the new State can improve and because “you cannot face the present if you do not face the past”.
Blessed Arrighinioriginally from Brescia, graduated in Law at the University of Trento, with a thesis on Kosovo Specialist Chambers. Her passion for the Balkans began during high school, in 2013 thanks to an educational trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina, organized to understand the dynamics of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. From here, her interest in international politics has been constantly growing. In 2017, she did an internship at the European Parliament. In autumn 2020, while completing her studies, she was an intern at Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso and Transeuropa, through which she was able to further delve into the reality of the Balkans.
Carlo Franza