Life in Kosovo discusses about emergency situations
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Romanian UN Officers Blamed for Pristina Deaths
19 April 2007 Report branded as
whitewash by lawyer representing dead men’s families.
By Krenar Gashi in
Pristina (Balkan Insight, 18 April 07)
A UN interim report
of 16 April from the international prosecutor in Kosovo has said police
officers from Romania
were responsible for the deaths of two people in a protest in Pristina of 10
February.
“The evidence to date leads to the conclusion that deaths
of Mon Balaj and Arben Xheladini were unnecessary and avoidable,” said the
report signed by Robert Dean, special prosecutor and head of investigating task
force for the case.
Balaj, aged 26, and
Xheladini, aged 31, died as a result of head wounds from rubber bullets fired
by Romanian special police units that serve in Kosovo as part of UN mission,
UNMIK.
“The state of the
evidence gathered thus far does not meet the threshold of reasonable suspicions
of criminal activity committed by any particular person,” it added.
Tome Gashi, lawyer of
the families of the victims, accused the report’s authors of attempting to
exonerate the men responsible for the shootings.
“Criminal
responsibility is individual,” he said. “This report generalizes the
responsibility to at least eight policemen without identifying them.”
However, Dean said
this was a misinterpretation of the report’s findings, and no one was yet
ruling out charges.
“There is a
reasonable suspicion that three of the shootings constitute crimes under Kosovo
law”, Dean said on 17 April.
“Those crimes would
be murder and the various types of murder, attempt to commit murder, and
inflicting grievous bodily injury,” he added. “The interim report concludes
that at this point the shootings in question appear to be unwarranted and
unjustified.”
As Dean pointed out,
the report noted that victims had posed no threat to anyone at the time they
were shot.
The protest on 10
February was organized by the Vetevendosje (Self-determination) movement. A
radical nationalist group, it demands full independence for Kosovo and opposes
the UN plan for supervised independence.
Police used tear gas
and rubber bullets when about 3,000 protesters tried to break through police
lines to reach government buildings. Film footage showed the protestors
throwing stones and other heavy objects at police, including wooden placards.
In an investigation
published on 23 February, Balkan Insight revealed that UN police had opened
fire and continued to fire while advancing towards the protesters, even when it
was apparent the crowd was retreating.
[Click here to read
the investigative report]
After viewing about
five hours of film, Balkan Insight noted six instances in which Romanian
officers could be seen firing rubber bullets directly into the crowd.
The violent protest
and its fatal aftermath forced the immediate resignation of Fatmir Rexhepi, the
minister of interior, and Steven Curtis, chief commissioner of UNMIK police.
Most of the Romanian
police have now left Kosovo. Seventy-five police officers, including 11 who
were under investigations, left on 21 March, despite UNMIK’s request to not to
do so until the investigation was finished.
Romania’s Interior Ministry said on 17 April that it “regretted the
unwanted loss of human life during the incidents and reaffirms Romania’s
wish to continue to contribute to the U.N. peacekeeping mission.”
Krenar Gashi is
BIRN’s Kosovo Editor. Marian Chiriac, BIRN Romania Director also contributed to
this article. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.
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Balkan Investigative Reporting Network
The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
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