Kabasic on the census in Kosovo: What about the damage after June 1999?

The census of the population in Kosovo, which began on April 5, includes a questionnaire about the war damage that occurred from February 28, 1998, to June 11, 1999. A former judge of the Higher Court in Kosovska Mitrovica, Nikola Kabasic, says that a census of war damage has not been conducted in the past 25 years, but the current one is undoubtedly politically instrumentalized, as is the timing of its implementation.

The most problematic aspect of the war damage census, according to him, is the period it covers, namely the fact that it is limited to June 11, 1999, when NATO forces first entered Kosovo.

"What about the period after that, until March 17, 2004, when the Serbian community, Gorani, and Roma were most severely attacked and suffered the greatest damage, with a large number of people killed, kidnapped, disappeared, wounded, and houses and villages systematically burned and destroyed? What about that damage? Has the church even been considered in this census? What is its property, what property has been destroyed, and who will compensate for that and in what way? For each segment of the census, a methodology should have been developed – what evidence will be required and what are the evidentiary means. Is there a commission that will ultimately say, 'Yes, we have verified that this is the actual damage or not'? However, they only say that citizens are obliged to provide accurate information, and if they provide false information, they will be held accountable by law. However, we are aware of how many false witnesses there are in Kosovo, and the prosecution does not initiate criminal proceedings for false testimonies," Kabasic says for Kosovo Online.

In the questionnaire, citizens can indicate whether their property was destroyed up to 10,000 euros, 20,000 euros, or more than 40,000 euros, but according to Kabasic, the accuracy of the data provided by citizens is not verifiable.

"No methodology has been developed for the census of war damage, nor has the population been informed about how this census will be conducted. How can we ultimately trust the data you will receive if every citizen is free to say that during the war, for example, they had five stables, ten houses, and that they were destroyed and burned. What kind of damage was there? Was it total, minor, or major? Can it be expressed materially or immaterially?" Kabasic asks.

He emphasizes that it cannot be said in advance that the data provided by citizens are false.

"There was damage. We cannot deny that. A large number of Albanian houses were burned and destroyed, and it needs to be determined who caused that damage, who burned it, and under what conditions, whether it was during wartime or intentional burning, whether it was committed by members of the KLA, as it often happened that they burned houses and punished their disloyal compatriots. That is a very complex issue, and the Kosovo government has stumbled on this. They have even received criticism from their own non-governmental organizations and legal experts who say that it was too hastily included as one of the segments of the census," Kabasic says.

Regarding the purpose for which Pristina can use these gathered data on war damage, our interlocutor says that if one looks at the entire policy of the Kosovo government in recent years, there are constant statements indicating that Serbia should be sued for war reparations and that a lawsuit will be filed against Serbia for alleged genocide.

"So, this census also aims to determine how many Albanians and how many Serbs there are, and consequently, how many Serbs have no right to claim anything in Kosovo. Kosovo's strategy is clearly visible because they themselves talk about their plans. When they are accepted into the Council of Europe, they will say that they are a state, as European states are admitted there, and now they are an undefined territory, and then they will say that they have the right to sue Serbia for genocide and to demand war reparations," Kabasic says.