Belgium Arrests Kosovo Ex-Guerrilla on War Crime Charges

Kosovo Liberation Army emblem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Adam Jones.

The Belgian authorities on Tuesday detained Pjeter Shala, a former Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA member after the Kosovo Specialist Chambers called for his arrest on war crimes charges.

“Pjeter Shala will be detained in Belgium, pending any transfer to the detention facility of the KSC [Kosovo Specialist Chambers] in The Hague,” said a statement issued by Specialist Chambers.

The statement said that the indictment will be made public “no later than the initial appearance of the accused” at the Hague-based court.

Media in Kosovo have reported that Shala was known during the war under the nom de guerre Komandant Ujku (Commander Wolf) and operated in the KLA’s Dukagjin Zone in western Kosovo during the 1998-99 conflict with Serbian forces.

In February 2019, he was interviewed by Hague prosecutors as a suspect.

The Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers will try former KLA guerrillas for crimes committed during and after the war from 1998 to 2000, including murder, torture and illegal detentions.

Among those already arrested and transferred to The Hague to face charges are former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and former parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli, who were senior KLA figures during wartime. Both have pleaded not guilty to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office are part of Kosovo’s justice system but are located in the Netherlands and staffed by internationals.

They were set up under pressure from Kosovo’s Western allies, who feared that Kosovo’s justice system was not robust enough to try KLA cases and protect witnesses from interference.