{"id":56226,"date":"2022-12-18T12:34:24","date_gmt":"2022-12-18T12:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/?p=56226"},"modified":"2022-12-18T15:10:47","modified_gmt":"2022-12-18T15:10:47","slug":"nevenka-tromp-serbia-has-started-another-way-to-destabilize-kosovo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/nevenka-tromp-serbia-has-started-another-way-to-destabilize-kosovo\/","title":{"rendered":"Nevenka Tromp: Serbia has started another way to destabilize Kosovo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>Serbia has started another parallel way to destabilize\nKosovo and create more chaos, says Nevenka Tromp, lecturer of East European\nStudies at the University of Amsterdam, in an interview for KosovaPress.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Tromp says that Serbia has never given up the territory of\nKosovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commenting on the developments in the north of the country,\nwhere the Serbs have set up barricades, Tromp emphasizes that Serbia will try\nto misuse any political situation to take advantage of the north of Kosovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Serbia now has been starting another parallel way to destabilize Kosovo and to create more chaos in the way that some hard work of more than 10 years, since 2008 onwards, has been derailed. And what I&#8217;m talking about is the fact that Kosovo Serbs did go to elections in the past, Kosovo Serbs did take part in executive power, and now that very hard work is challenged and may be undone, and everything what is happening now simply destabilizes Kosovo&#8217;s achievements since 2008, and unfortunately the fact that court has issued its first judgment, and the fact that Kosovo Albanian side cooperated with the court, and is supporting it still, despite its shortcomings, cannot, absolutely cannot compensate for many open political questions that Serbia every time puts on table, because Serbia never gave up the territory of Kosovo and Serbia at least will try to use and abuse every political situation to request or demand at least Northern Kosovo and Association of Serb communities to be actually united with Serbian properties&#8221;, says Tromp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nevenka Tromp: Serbia has started another way to destabilize Kosovo\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9k3xDL44fjI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The expert on Balkan issues asserts that Kosovo must exist\nwithin the current state borders it has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are at this very, very important crossroad, and it\nis difficult to see that after 2008 a period of some hope to stabilization, we\nare now back to fight the basics. Can Kosovo exist in its current state\nborders? The answer obviously is that it can and it should, but destabilization\nand creation of permanent instability will make recovery of Kosovo and Kosovo&#8217;s\npath to EU more rocky than normally should have been the case&#8221;, she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The researcher of the Hague Tribunal for the former\nYugoslavia says that the Kosovar politicians who have supported the creation of\nthe Special Court have done that, so that Serbia does not have arguments\nagainst Kosovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, according to her, Serbia has abandoned the path of\nresponsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;One of the arguments to constitute the Kosovo\nSpecialist Chambers, say before 2015, was that establishing such a legal\nstructure that would also deal with crimes committed by Kosovo Liberation Army\nshould actually be important element to this path of appeasing Serbia in, at\ncertain stage, recognizing status of Kosovo as an independent state, and I\nthink many of your politicians who were lobbying within Kosovo parliament for\nthe constitution of this court, the Kosovo&#8217;s Specialist Chambers in the Kingdom\nof Netherlands had that political purpose in mind. \u2018We&#8217;ll do everything that\nInternational Community asks from us because we want to show that we belong to\ncivilizational world of developed democracies and accountability, and justice\nis part of it\u2019. And they did it because they wanted Serbia at certain point to\nhave no arguments anymore, to say \u2018but Kosovo doesn&#8217;t do this, Kosovo didn&#8217;t do\nthat&#8221;. However, the court has been established, the first indictments have\nbeen issued, but Serbia has now totally absolutely abandoned this path of\naccountability. It&#8217;s enough now for Serbia that some prominent leaders of KLA\nare detained in The Hague waiting for trial.&#8221; she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Special Court on Friday announced the first verdict on\nthe allegations of war crimes and former KLA commander Salih Mustafa was\nsentenced to 26 years in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There are many issues in this summary judgment, and\nyet again we have to see what we will be following up, but first of all I think\nwhat this judgment shows, Salih Mustafa&#8217;s judgment, or what summary of the\njudgment shows to the world is that they again say: \u2018look all the six victims\nin Salih Mustafa&#8217;s trial are Kosovar Albanians, those who were projected to be\ntraitors or collaborators, and there are so far no Serbs victims\u2019, so they,\nalmost between the lines, say it&#8217;s okay, it&#8217;s really the court against Kosovo\nAlbanian alleged perpetrators for the suffering of Kosovo Albanians victims the\nso-called perpetrators&#8221;, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She mentions some of the problems that, according to her,\nhave led to this case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;And one of the huge issues that I have when I read an\nindictment of Salih Mustafa, or an indictment of other indintees so far, 5 of\nthem still there waiting for the trial, is that if you read an indictment and\nnow a summary judgment you have no idea what sort of conflict it was, there is\nno contextualization. Why there was such a need for makeshift detention center\nin this area, in Zllash area, because suddenly they were sending Serb forces\nand they had to abandon the detention center and they left behind one of the\nwounded detainees, but they don&#8217;t understand in what sort of circumstances this\nwas happening, and I think it is going to be repeated in the way presented now\nduring the trial and in the judgment we will be simply denied to understand the\ngravity of much bigger war, and much bigger crimes happening in the same time,\nand it was a context of Serbian forces, military police forces being busy since\n24 of March to conduct a huge sweeping up military campaign actually to expel\nas many Kosovar Albanians from Kosovo in order to keep Kosovo under sub\ncontrol, not one word of contextualization of the war we could read in\nindictment or in the evidence or in the summary judgment. I think it is a huge\nshortcoming and this is not how the law should function.\u201d says Tromp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even in the hearing of the announcement of the judgment, the\npanel said that the court is not against the KLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chief judge Mappie Veldt Foglia said that the court was\ncreated by the people of Kosovo, through the institution of the Assembly.\n\n\u201cIf you read the summary judgment, the presiding\njudge had to spend two or three paragraphs, again to confirm and tell to the\noutside world, what is the legality of legitimacy of the court, so basically\nwhat they are saying is \u2018We are the court that you people from Kosovo wanted\nand you did it for your own Parliament and because you wanted it, we are doing\nthis, for you, we are your court\u2019, and then they say, \u2018we are not here to judge\nKosovo&#8217;s Liberation Army, KLA, we are not here to judge Kosovo&#8217;s people,\nbecause we are going to concentrate only on individuals\u2019 and then, after that\nthey say, for whatever judgment is going to be, \u2018we had huge problems because\nwitnesses were problematic because they get threatened all the time\u2019. So, again\nat the beginning already, the judges and the court find all the reasons to\ncover themselves and to explain that actually, it&#8217;s okay that we are here,\nmaybe we will disappoint you, but&nbsp; we\nhave that good foundation\u2019. The court shouldn&#8217;t be explaining itself, the court\nshould act as the legal authority and deal only with the issues in front of it,\nand the issues in front of every court and judges is actually the defendant,\nthe most important person in this whole judgment should be Mr. Mustafa, because\nit&#8217;s his life that is at stake, and his rights and fairness of his trial that\njudges should be mostly concerned with, and not about their public image that\nthey will project, knowing actually that would follows at the end the number of\nyears in prison for Mr. Mustafa might actually be met with a huge criticism in\nKosovo. So, this court and these judges are very much busy with themselves, an\nimage of the court, and it distracts their attention from the defendant.\u201d says\nTromp.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serbia has started another parallel way to destabilize Kosovo and create more chaos, says Nevenka Tromp, lecturer of East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam, in an interview for KosovaPress. Tromp says that Serbia has never given up the territory of Kosovo. Commenting on the developments in the north of the country, where the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":56227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[302,306,298,296,3131],"tags":[3276],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56226"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56247,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56226\/revisions\/56247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosovapress.com\/eng\/admin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}