The judge gave Mustafa’s defence ten days to respond to the suggestion of a deadline. But the Specialist Chambers said on March 15 that so far there has been no decision on the issue.

Angela Griep, a spokesperson for the Specialist Chambers, told BIRN that the defendant is liable for the compensation, not the court.

“Nowhere in the Reparation Order it is indicated that victims will be compensated from the KSC budget. The responsibility to pay the compensation lies exclusively with Mr. Mustafa,” Griep said.

According to the verdict in the Mustafa case, the eight victims were held at a Koso Liberation Army, KLA detention facility in the village of Zllash in the Podujeva municipality in April 1999 and arbitrarily tortured.

Seven detainees were released, but Mustafa didn’t free one of them, who was killed between on or around April 19, 1999.

The judges found that Mustafa personally participated in the torture of two detainees and that his failure to order the release of the last prisoner directly led to their death.

Kosovo ministry refuses to step in

After evaluating Mustafa’s finances, the judges in the trial concluded that he “does not have the means to fully comply with the order” to compensate the victims, but the court has not yet said whether it will order any of his assets to be seized.

However, the Specialist Chambers told BIRN that there will be “ongoing monitoring of his financial situation” in order to show whether he has the means to pay.

The judges suggested that Kosovo’s Crime Victim Compensation Programme could be an alternative source of funds for the victims.

But Kosovo’s Ministry of Justice refused to step in and compensate the victims in the Mustafa case.

Responding to the judges’ request, the Ministry of Justice argued that the registrar cannot act as the victims’ “authorised representative” and submit a claim for compensation on their behalf “to avoid any conflict of interest”. When asked about the request by BIRN, the ministry repeated the same statement.

The judges insisted however that no conflict of interest exists because the registry is a neutral organ of the Specialist Chambers, whose mandate is to administer and service the court.

The Hague court has no power to order Kosovo to pay the compensation awarded to the victims. But the Specialist Chambers said the judges “reminded Kosovo of its obligations regarding the victims’ right to an effective remedy, as enshrined in [Kosovo’s] constitution”.

The judges also cited Kosovo’s obligations under the country’s Law on the Status and Rights of the Martyrs, Invalids, Veterans, Members of the Kosovo Army, Civilian Victims of War and Their Families.

This piece of legislation provides an indication of what the Kosovo authorities consider a proportionate level of redress for harm resulting from the 1998-99 war – welfare payments of up to around 400 euros a month.

However, Kosovo’s legislation does not address the suffering of the victims in the Mustafa case, as the focus of the law is the harm caused by the actions of the enemy – the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police forces. Victims harmed by the KLA aren’t eligible for compensatory welfare payments.

The judges at the Specialist Chambers recommended the establishment of a trust fund for the benefit of victims of crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court. They suggested that this should be financed from Kosovo’s budget, because defendants at the Hague court are being financially supported to defend themselves, “whereas nothing is provided for the victims of crimes”.

But Kosovo’s Ministry of Justice said that the establishment of a new fund to compensate victims would require Kosovo’s parliament to enact a “special law”, as it did for the financing of the defence and the defendants’ costs at the Specialist Chambers.

Victims in Kosovo courts discontented

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were established by the Kosovo Assembly in 2015. They are part of Kosovo’s judiciary but located in the Netherlands and staffed by international personnel.

In Kosovo itself, unlike the Specialist Chambers, no judge in a domestic war crime trial has issued any order to compensate the victims.

Bajram Zylfiu, who is among two survivors of the Krushe e Vogel/Velika Krusa village massacre on March 26, 1999, was among the victims who appeared as witnesses in the war crime trial of Darko Tasic, a Serb police reservist who was sentenced to 11 years in prison over the killings.

“I have never been physically and mentally healthy since that day when I was dragged out of a pile of dead bodies. But I’ve never received any support or welfare payment, let alone compensation,” Zylfiu told BIRN. “I have always been a burden to my family,” he added.

“I was called several times to testify in Tasic’s trial, but nobody mentioned compensation. We victims didn’t have any counsel or lawyers,” he continued. “I have never heard about compensation or any Committee for Crime Victim Compensation.”

Kosovo’s Committee for Crime Victim Compensation, a Ministry of Justice body, has ensured that thousands of victims of various crimes have received financial assistance, but none of them have been victims of war crimes.

Zylfiu said that he suffers from PTSD, depression, migraines and other health issues, but he receives nothing for his status as an invalid survivor of a wartime massacre. This is because, based on a 2016 regulation issued by the Ministry of Finance and Transfers, he can’t benefit from the state pension scheme twice.

People like Zylfiu who have worked and paid pension contributions can’t legally receive a war-related pension as well as the state pension.

Agron Limani lost his father, brother and three other relatives in the 1999 Krushe e Vogel/Velika Krusa massacre. Like Zylfiu, he also testified in the trial of Darko Tasic.

“There were ten victims in this war crimes trial, and nobody asked them about compensation,” Limani told BIRN.

“I don’t know if anyone in Kosovo has been compensated [in war crimes cases]. Paradoxically, Kosovo’s legislation doesn’t provide equal treatment for victims [of crime],” he said.

Drita Hajdari, former head of the Department of War Crimes at the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office, said that she has seen from her own experience how victims are underrepresented before Kosovo courts.

“There were cases when the accused had a team of lawyers while victims came alone with nobody to advise them about their rights,” Hajdari told BIRN.

She said that the victim in Kosovo’s first wartime rape trial that ended in a conviction was able to secure compensation of 2,000 euros via the Committee for Crime Victim Compensation.

Kosovo has changed its legislation so it can now try defendants in their absence – generally members of Serbian forces who are living in Serbia, which doesn’t recognise Kosovo and will not extradite them for trial.

But Hajdari warned that this will create yet more problems for victims seeking reparation. “Compensation will actually be impossible in trials in absentia,” she said.

For the victims in the trial of Salih Mustafa, meanwhile, the wait for their promised compensation continues. Whether Mustafa will be able to pay up or whether his assets will be confiscated remains to be seen.