Kosovo police fire tear gas as bid to curb Hague war crimes court stalls

Riot police in Kosovo fired tear gas and used water cannon on Monday evening to break up protesters outside parliament in Pristina, after lawmakers closed their session without passing a bill that would sharply limit the powers of the Hague-based war crimes court. Several hundred demonstrators had blockaded the building through the day and tried to keep lawmakers from leaving until they held a second vote, Euronews reported.

Protesters threw firecrackers and stones at officers guarding parliament and government buildings in the city center, Reuters reported. At least 17 people were injured, six of them police officers, and three protesters were detained. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said 11 civilians sought medical help and that three protesters were handed over for judicial processing.

A bill to rein in the Specialist Chambers

Earlier in the day, all 91 lawmakers present in the 120-seat assembly voted for the bill at first reading, RFE/RL reported. The amendments target the law that created the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, set up in The Hague in 2015 to try former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters for crimes committed during and after the 1998-99 war with Serbia. The changes would:

• cap prison sentences at 15 years;
• let defendants appeal to Kosovo's Supreme Court;
• allow the president to grant amnesty to those convicted;
• narrow the court's time frame from January 1998 to December 2000 down to July 1, 1999, to December 2000, the period after the war.

The push follows last month's verdicts against four senior former guerrilla commanders. Former President Hashim Thaci and Jakup Krasniqi each received 25 years, Kadri Veseli 18 years and Rexhep Selimi 13 years, a combined 81 years, according to RFE/RL and Reuters. Many protesters regard the men as heroes of the independence struggle, and the sentences set off rallies across Kosovo, Euronews reported.

A fight that also blocks the presidency

The court dispute has become tangled with a deadline to elect Kosovo's next president, which RFE/RL said falls on Oct. 6. The Democratic Party of Kosovo, with 22 seats, has tied its support for a presidential candidate to passage of the court bill, while Prime Minister Albin Kurti's Vetevendosje, which holds 53 seats, wanted the presidential vote first. Electing a president requires 80 votes in the first two rounds and 61 in a third, and at least 80 lawmakers must be present for the vote to go ahead, RFE/RL reported.

Kurti's party backed the first reading but would not support the second. "We consider these moves to amend the law on the Specialist Chambers rushed and insufficiently analysed and thought through," Kurti said, according to Reuters. Jehona Lushaku-Sadriu of the Democratic League of Kosovo warned that approval by parliament would not guarantee the changes are applied and that they might carry no legal effect, RFE/RL reported. Ehat Miftaraj, director of the Kosovo Law Institute, said lawmakers must respect Kosovo's international commitments. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said legislative changes were Kosovo's decision but that judicial independence must be guaranteed.

What it means

The clashes show how deeply the Kosovo Liberation Army's legacy still runs through Kosovo's politics a quarter century after the war. A parliament that agreed unanimously at first reading to curb the court then split over timing, and the dispute now threatens to leave the country without a timely presidential election. For Kurti, the bill poses a dilemma: opposing it angers voters who see the convicted commanders as liberators, while backing it risks a clash with the European Union, whose leadership has made judicial independence the test. Any final vote that caps sentences or opens the door to amnesty would put Pristina at odds with partners it relies on, and would hand Belgrade an argument about Kosovo's commitment to accountability for wartime crimes.