Kosovo ‘Clarifies’ Hague War Crimes Court’s Jurisdiction, But to What End?

In the days following the conviction of four former guerrilla commanders by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, lawmakers in Pristina faced calls to scrap the court.

They might have tried, given it was Kosovo’s parliament that created the chambers in 2015, albeit under intense Western pressure.

Instead, on October 6, parliament passed a bill curtailing the jurisdiction of the KSC.

It followed 20 consecutive days of protests led by veterans of the Kosovo Albanian guerrilla fight against Serbian repression in 1998-99, rallying under the slogan ‘Not in my name’ - a direct swipe at the presiding judge’s choice of words - ‘In the name of the people of Kosovo’ - when he read the verdict.