Sentenced in July to 18 years in prison for war crimes committed during the 1998-99 Kosovo war, Kosovo Albanian former guerrilla Pjeter Shala will find out at the end of November how much compensation he owes his victims. Experience so far, however, cast doubts as to whether he they will ever be paid.
Shala is expected to become the second convicted ex-guerrilla to be ordered to compensate his victims, after Salih Mustafa was instructed in April last year to pay eight victims a total of 207,000 euros for “harm inflicted” on them by the crimes Mustafa was convicted of, including arbitrary detention and torture.
The victims are still waiting, however, amid a row between Kosovo and the Hague-based Specialist Chambers set up to try former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, whom most Kosovo Albanians consider heroes for their fight against Serbian forces in the late 1990s.
After judges at the Specialist Chambers conceded Mustafa did not have the means to pay the sum, the Chambers issued an order for the confiscation of his assets, but even then the total won’t be met. The Chambers says that ultimately Kosovo should pay, but the government has refused, saying court bodies cannot apply on behalf of victims to the state’s general fund for victims of violent crime.