Serbian atrocities should be brought before the International Penal Tribunal in the Hague

Tirana, March 12, 1998. To the address of the conclusions drawn up at the London meeting of the Contact Group, there can be more than one remark formulated. Such remarks can even express some disappointment at the insufficient engagement of the Great Powers to prevent and punish the Serbian atrocities against the peaceful Albanian population.

Notwithstanding, from London a message did come clearer than ever, a message which is not new, but it is worth to reconfirm: that Human Rights constitute at present universal values and their respect is an obligation belonging to all States. In face of the contemporary developments, the dogma of no interference in the internal affairs of a state is definitely losing ground. It is not possible any more for a State to refer to such a dogma to justify the violation of Human Rights and fundamental freedoms. It is, indeed, an epochal innovation, which is more and more deeply rooted in human consciousness this 50^th year of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights of December 1948.

The public opinion at large all over the world has been following with a feeling of indignation and horror the scenery of the barbarian attacks by the Serbian punitive units against a peaceful population, a violence which has sown destruction and death. It is too early to strike a comprehensive balance of the victims, but it is already well known that the Albanian people of Kossovo has paid a high tribute for his legitimate aspiration to self determination in a land in which they constitute a overwhelming majority.

Among the victims there are many women and children and this suffice to dismiss the propaganda of the Serbian authorities as though they have been engaged in an action directed against the so-called terrorist groups. The Serbian police have by far exceeded the limits of a reasonable reaction in the course of an armed engagement and they have simply committed killings of unarmed undefended people. Thus, they have committed crimes against humanity as in Bosnia.

Under these circumstances, the Albanian Helsinki Committee welcomes the statement appeared in the press, according to which the International Penal Tribunal in the Hague is fully entitled to investigate war crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia, Kossovo included. The same source adds that there can be other cases of incrimination of the authors of massacres in Kossovo and that the International Criminal Tribunal is likely to start the same proceedings as in relation to the war crimes in Bosnia.

The Albanian Helsinki Committee considers that in the tragic events in Kossovo all the elements of crimes committed by the Serbian police and military units are present. Basic norms of the humanitarian law have been heavily violated. This barbarian undertaking cannot be finished only by a rhetorical condemnation.

The Albanian Helsinki Committee calls on all human rights bodies and organizations, both governmental and non-governmental in the outside world, to unite in a joint protest against the Serbian crackdown on Kossovo and to undertake a common action for the authors of the latest crimes in Kossovo to be identified and brought without delay before international justice. It is the right moment to address a joint appeal to the Hague Penal Tribunal to give serious immediate consideration to this case in the framework of its jurisdiction on war crimes in former Yugoslavia.

Serbian atrocities in Kossovo should be pursued as crimes against humanity and submitted to international sanctions.