Kosovo can sue Serbia for genocide “only through a third party (state)”, says the Serbian historian, Bojan Djokic, reasoning on the basis that Kosovo is not part of the United Nations Organization.
“The International Court of Justice is the institution to which the lawsuit for genocide against the state is addressed, but it is not excluded that the lawsuit has other demands and accusations, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity, compensation for damages and others. I believe that Kosovo’s lawsuit will include all possible demands and accusations, regardless of whether they are legally based or not,” says Serbian historian Bojan Gjokić in an interview for Danas.
In an editorial titled “Kosovo’s lawsuit against Serbia”, Gjokić wrote about the Institute for War Crimes, which was established by decree of the Government of Kosovo at the beginning of November last year, as well as about the aim of the Institute to gather evidence for Kosovo’s announced lawsuit against Serbia.
The text has also caused reactions, including the Serbian lawyer Milan Antonijević, who wrote in “X” that “there can be no lawsuit from Kosovo against Serbia, that’s all”.
Gjokić, when asked if such a lawsuit is possible, given that Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations, answered that this is not an obstacle for Kosovo to file a lawsuit through a third party, that is, for a state to file a lawsuit on behalf of Kosovo.
“We saw an example of how, at the end of last year, the Republic of South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel for the alleged genocide committed against the Palestinians. Then Cuba, Chile and other countries joined the suit. It is a justified assumption that the Republic of Albania will file a lawsuit against the Republic of Serbia and then some other countries will support the lawsuit,” said Gjokić.
He said that “it should be borne in mind that individuals have been convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity before different courts” and that “several thousand Albanian victims were involved in those trials”.
“However, few people are aware of the fact that many crimes have been committed against the Albanian population that have not received their epilogue”, said Gjokic.
He said that “it is about 3000 to 4000 victims”.
“If the court finds among these crimes the ‘intent’ to commit genocide, which is the main condition for something to be declared a criminal offense of genocide, the lawsuit could be catastrophic for the Republic of Serbia. Also, I believe that no one in the Republic of Serbia has read the judgment of the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, taken in 1998 in the case of ‘Prosecutor against Jean-Paul Akayesu’. It set a precedent. He came to the conclusion that rape is an act of genocide.”
“In Kosovo, about 1,650 people have received the status of victims of sexual violence in the war, and this would be the main asset of the lawsuit. Due to the inaction of the Republic of Serbia, namely the inaction against several hundreds of criminal charges filed against various individuals for crimes committed in Kosovo, we should expect such facts to be referred to in the lawsuit. Ignoring the problem does not solve it. And by combining all the evidence, the lawsuit will probably be the most extensive that has been seen in international practice”, said Gjokic.
