Frustrated justice: revisiting ICTY’s involvement in adjudicating crimes committed during the Kosovo war

Abstract

This chapter will revisit the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia’s (ICTY’s) investigation, prosecution and adjudication of crimes committed during the Kosovo war, and its subsequent political and societal impact on both Kosovo and Kosovo-Serbia relations. The chapter presents an analysis of the prosecution and trial of Slobodan Milošević for crimes committed during the Kosovo war and concludes with an enquiry into the Haradinaj et al. retrial judgement delivered in November 2012. I argue that the ICTY’s efforts with regards to the crimes committed during the Kosovo war amounted to a frustrated attempt to deliver justice: unfulfilling and disturbing for the ICTY itself, unsatisfactory and upsetting for the victims, and divisive for the broader communities and societies involved. In the final section, I assess the contemporary implications of the ICTY’s “frustrated justice” in terms of criminal responsibility, broader transitional justice issues, and inter-community reconciliation between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs.