Death of War Crimes Witness Casts Cloud on Kosovo
By MATTHEW BRUNWASSER
Published: October 6, 2011
PRIZREN, KOSOVO — The death of a key witness in Germany in the war crimes trial of one of Kosovo's most powerful politicians has cast doubt on the effective prosecution of the case and threatens to derail local and international efforts to establish the rule of law here.
ntimidation, fear, clan loyalties and a culture of silence have long impeded the development of a functioning justice system in Kosovo, analysts say, and the death is seen as a major setback.
The witness, Agim Zogaj, 53, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army who kept meticulous diary notes of alleged war crimes, was found dead last week, hanging from a tree in a park in the Western German city of Duisburg.
Mr. Zogaj was said by his family to have been under witness protection from the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, or Eulex, for his testimony against Fatmir Limaj. Mr. Limaj is a lawmaker in Kosovo's governing party and a top former commander with the Kosovo Liberation Army and is seen by many Kosovars as a hero of the country's liberation.
In September, a Eulex judge placed Mr. Limaj under house arrest for one month while awaiting trial on war crimes charges of killing and torturing Serbian and Albanian prisoners in the central Kosovo village of Klecka. Mr. Zogaj was the commander responsible for the security of camps in the village, and many of the charges are based on his witness statements.
The police in Duisburg officially ruled the death a suicide after the autopsy last week, and Mr. Zogaj was buried in Prizren on Monday.
Afrim Zogaj, 46, spoke of "huge psychological pressure" on his brother. "It's not possible that he killed himself," he said, "and if he did, he was forced to do it."
In the family home in Prizren, where Mr. Zogaj's wife and three children lived while their father was in hiding, the blame was placed squarely on Eulex.
"Eulex is responsible for my husband's death," said his widow, Ganimeti Zogaj. "They didn't treat him well. They didn't provide anything for him at all."
Eulex has declined to comment on the death and issued a short statement expressing regret at the loss of life and explaining why it could not say more.
"Witness protection and security are extremely sensitive issues," it said, and we cannot "and will not confirm nor deny any operational details."
According to his brother, after an assault on the family home in March, Agim Zogaj was shot in the hand and leg and decided to testify and seek witness protection from Eulex. Eulex sent Mr. Zogaj to Duisburg to live with his brother.
When Eulex officials took him away from the family home after the attack, "they said, 'We will take care of him, he's our responsibility,"' said Idriz Zogaj, 75, the father.
Afrim Zogaj said Eulex had provided his brother no physical security in Germany
Vehbi Kajtazi, legal affairs reporter at Koha Ditore, a leading national daily in Kosovo, said: "The trust in Eulex has been destroyed. All the witnesses in the case will now start looking for ways to avoid testifying."
Mr. Kajtazi said the fallout would affect the entire judicial system.
"Witness protection was unreliable here even before this case" he said. "This is the worst signal you can send to future potential witnesses."
Intimidation and even killings of witnesses are nothing new or shocking in Kosovo, said Avni Zogiani, who leads Cohu, an anti-corruption nongovernmental organization.
"The E.U. is recklessly hunting for a symbolic success in Kosovo," Mr. Zogiani said. "They want to show European public opinion that the E.U. can have a foreign policy success while ignoring what is happening on the ground in Kosovo."
In the war crimes trial of the former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, 34 of 100 witnesses were allowed to conceal their identities, the most of any case at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, prosecutors said at the time. Eighteen had to be subpoenaed because they refused to appear, and others, once inside the courtroom, said they did not dare testify. He was acquitted of all charges in 2008, but in 2010 a partial retrial was ordered.
