Kosovo Survivor’s Testimony Inspires US Congressional Action

Congressmen - both Democrats and Republicans - have introduced a resolution in the US Congress calling for justice for all victims of sexual violence. This resolution has been welcomed in Kosovo and is being considered a major step towards justice, CE Report quotes Kosova Press.

Sexual violence survivor Vasfije Krasniqi-Goodman, who six years ago testified before the US Congress about the horror she experienced during the war, has thanked the congressmen for the resolution.

"An important step in our fight for justice - members of the US Congress, both Democratic and Republican, led by Congressmen Julie Johnson, Keith Self, Ritchie Torres, Jim McGovern, Marc Veasey, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, George Latimer, Mike Lawler, and Ilhan Omar, are introducing Resolution 26 in the US Congress calling for justice and an end to impunity for the crimes of sexual violence committed by Serbian forces during the 1999 war in Kosovo in my case and all other survivors,"she wrote on Facebook.

This resolution was introduced by Congresswoman Julie Johnson.

The Director of the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo, Bekim Blakaj, says that resolution number 26 keeps the focus on war crimes committed in Kosovo.

"In essence, the resolution is very positive, first of all, it still keeps in focus the war crimes committed in Kosovo, focusing more on sexual rape as a war crime, on the case of Mrs. Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman. It is also very important that this resolution has been supported by both parties, both the Republican and Democratic Parties in the United States of America. And I am not sure how far it can realistically go to prosecute the perpetrators of these war crimes because the resolution deals with this issue, it calls for the prosecution of those who committed sexual rape as a war crime in Kosovo", declares ai.

The resolution calls for the case of Vasfije Krasniqi - Goodman, for whom there has been no conviction so far, to be included in talks between the US and Kosovo.

"We cannot expect results, but the idea is that this issue remains in the focus of the United States of America and one of the achievements that can be achieved with this resolution is to have more and better quality court proceedings in Kosovo. Because the resolution calls on the United States of America to invest more in the training of judges and prosecutors in Kosovo. And also to support associations that provide psychosocial assistance to this category of victims, survivors of sexual violence," he added.

The Kosovo Center for the Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors (KRRT) has welcomed the proposal of Resolution 26 in the US Congress.

Edona Mushica from this organization says that this resolution calls on Serbian authorities not to glorify the perpetrators of these crimes.

"This resolution calls for justice for victims of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo and represents an important step in international efforts to address war crimes, and in particular to ensure justice for victims of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo. As KRCT, we see it as a very important legal act, but in addition we see it as a humanitarian act. Since it brings to global attention the pain and sacrifices of survivors of sexual violence during the war in Kosovo and is proof that the democratic world, like the USA, stands by them," she says.

However, Bekim Blakaj of the Humanitarian Law Center does not expect the resolution to produce "Serbia's commitment to punishing war crimes perpetrators."

"The experience with Serbia has shown that with such resolutions and direct political pressure not much has been achieved. As a comparative case, one can take the case of the murder of the Bytyçi brothers - American citizens who were arrested by the Serbian police and then tried for 15 days for illegal border crossing and then they disappeared and after a few years were found murdered in a mass grave in Petrovosello, Serbia. The State Department [State Department] put direct pressure on the then Prime Minister of Serbia, [Aleksandar] Vuçiq "also to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Ivica Dacic, to resolve this case and punish those responsible. But this has never happened," Blakaj concludes.

The number of people raped during the recent war in Kosovo is unknown, but reports suggest around 20.

So far, only Zoran Vukotić has been convicted by local courts for sexual rape during the last war in Kosovo.