This EU Master Class was jointly organised by EULEX and the EU Information and Cultural Centre in Pristina. The demand to attend the course was very high with over twice as many applicants as places available. However, the organising team accommodated the extra participants. Announcements about future Master Classes will be posted on this page and the Facebook page of the EU Office in Kosovo.

Salustro explained why war crimes are more challenging to prosecute than other serious crimes. Firstly, the evidence collected in war crimes cases are built from witness statements and forensic evidence retrieved long after the crime was committed. This makes war crimes often hard to prove in court and can lead to lengthy investigations. Another specific challenge arises because of the politicized environment in which war crimes were committed: How willing are witnesses going to be in testifying against their ‘brother in arms’? On the other hand, how reliable is a single witness statement in a court case against a sworn enemy? Salustro also discussed at length the legal framework that a prosecutor in Kosovo has at his disposal and how this affects the decisions that are made in court.

So far EULEX judges have delivered twenty-six verdicts in war crime cases. There are eighty-four ongoing war crime investigations and eight confirmed indictments.

Also, the documentary ‘In Search of the Missing’ was shown during the Master Class to explain the work that is done in Kosovo to search for those that went missing during the 1999 Kosovo conflict and how forensic evidence can lead to criminal investigations. This documentary can be watched online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z0z7tj7nQc

This EU Master Class was jointly organised by EULEX and the EU Information and Cultural Centre in Pristina. Announcements about future Master Classes will be posted on this page and the Facebook page of the EU Office in Kosovo.