Council to Discuss Witness Protection in the Balkans

The Parliamentary Assembly, PACE, will debate resolutions on witness protection, reconciliation and political dialogue and cooperation in the prosecution of war crimes in the region.

Serbian President Boris Tadic will also address the session in Strasbourg.

Today's session comes after the Council of Europe on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling for an international investigation into allegations that a criminal network tied to the Kosovo Liberation Army executed prisoners and harvested their kidneys to sell for illicit organ transplant. The resolution was based on a report by Swiss MP Dick Marty.

CoE Rapporteur Jean Charles Gardetto, whose report is one of the three up for debate, has stated that his document on witness protection in war crime cases in the Balkans “is not only about Kosovo and is not against Kosovo”.

“Among other things, there is no law that governs this area. Those who decide to testify are really taking a big risk. Lives of some of them are even in danger. Threats and attacks on witness often remain unpunished,” he told Belgrade's Vecernje Novosti daily.

Gardetto also pointed out that the EULEX witness protection unit did not have enough funding or specialised police, and added that it could be said that there was a real void in Kosovo in terms of witness protection.

According to his assessment, Kosovo is followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina, “while Serbia got a passing grade, ranking immediately after ‘leader’ Croatia”.

This CoE rapporteur stressed that, since it has been so many years since the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, justice can now "practically only rely on witnesses".

“That is why witnesses need much better protection, since that’s the only way to get to the truth which is necessary in order to close the painful page in the region’s history,” Gardetto pointed out.