Since 2022, following amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, trials in absentia have also become possible in Kosovo. According to the FDHK, as of February 2025, 15 indictments in absentia have been filed against 73 members of the Serbian forces.
Blakaj sees this as a positive move numerically, but fears the real outcome for the administration of justice.
"I think that, at this moment, perhaps even the victims' families may be more satisfied with these processes, although perhaps at a future stage, when it is clear that most of them will not even be convicted in absentia, or will not even be imprisoned, it may then turn into a kind of frustration," he says.
The disproportionate ethnic prosecution of war crimes suspects, in this case in favor of the majority community, is also evident in Serbia.
Authorities there told Radio Free Europe that since the establishment of war crimes departments in 2003, 270 indictments have been filed – 112 people have been convicted, while 29 have been acquitted.
Serbian courts and prosecutors said they do not keep statistics on the ethnicity of convicted or acquitted persons.
However, a 2024 report by the Humanitarian Law Center in Serbia estimates that the number of cases against Serbs for crimes against Kosovo Albanians is not proportional to the scale and extent of the crimes committed against them by Serbian armed formations.
The Institute for War Crimes in Kosovo, established by the Kosovo Government in 2023, says it has documented 12,230 war victims, the vast majority Albanians killed by Serbian forces.
According to Blakaj, those convicted in Serbia were mainly low-ranking officers, not the most responsible individuals.
When will the era of international trials for war crimes in Yugoslavia end?
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were established in 2015, with the approval of the Kosovo Assembly. They are part of the Kosovo judicial system, but are based in The Hague, Netherlands, and operate with international judges and prosecutors.
Unlike the Special Tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was established by the United Nations to deal with war crimes throughout the former Yugoslavia.
Iva Vukusic, a historian from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, says that in the perception of part of the legal community and researchers in The Hague, the end of an era had come with the appeal conviction of the former commander of the Serb forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ratko Mladic, although other processes were subsequently concluded.
According to her, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers have attracted significantly less attention outside Kosovo and Serbia than the processes of the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
“In many ways it’s understandable, because it’s been almost 30 years. So, I think in a way it’s normal that we don’t pay attention to this [war crimes trials] in the same way that we did in 2005,” Vukusic tells Radio Free Europe.
The spokesperson for the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor's Office in The Hague, Chris Bennett, says that this institution does not comment on the existence or details of any investigation, or when its mandate will end.
"The mandate of the Specialist Prosecutor's Office continues until the Council of the European Union notifies the Kosovo institutions that the investigations and any proceedings arising from them have been concluded," he explains in a response to Radio Free Europe.
Vukusic says that beyond the Kosovo Special Court, the likelihood of political and financial support for other special tribunals for the former Yugoslavia has diminished, especially with the outbreak of new wars around the world.
"I would say that, one way or another, we also have to think about how long we will need to receive external support – like a crutch – to make our legal systems function properly?" she says.
What have local courts done in the rest of the Balkans?
In the Balkan region, the results of domestic courts vary significantly.
Blakaj singles out Bosnia and Herzegovina as the country that has done the most, both in terms of the number of trials and the level of responsibility of the individuals tried.
According to an analysis by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), from 2004 to the end of 2024, domestic courts there have completed 773 cases against 1,209 defendants. In 499 cases, final convictions have been issued.
However, Vukusic says that hundreds of potential cases remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and warns that many of them may never reach court.
In Croatia, according to data provided to Radio Free Europe, from 1991 to March 31, 2026, prosecutors have filed indictments against 2,185 people. Meanwhile, the courts have not responded regarding the number of verdicts.
In Montenegro, according to Bojana Malović from the organization Action for Human Rights, nine indictments have been filed over the past three decades.
Seven proceedings have ended with final decisions: four with convictions, and three with the acquittal of all defendants. Two other proceedings are ongoing./ REL.
