This report was first published in January, 2002. Nearly, four years later, the issue of CIA renditions to European countries where suspects are possibly tortured is being investigated. As Le Monde quoted BHHRG's 2002 report in an article published on 25th November, June: "<…> "prison secrète" américaine a existé dans un camp de l'OTAN au Kosovo ... existence" we are reprinting the report. Also, published is BHHRG's Mark Almond's February, 2002 New Statesman article "Nightmare at Camp Bondsteel".
Introduction
The international community, which governs the former Yugoslav province of Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina, bases its legitimacy on the concept of the rule of law. On 12th February 2002, indeed, the trial began in The Hague of the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic. This trial is intended to embody the way in which the international community is working towards the realization of the rule of law in the Balkans in particular and in international affairs on a global scale.
The procedural shortcomings of The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague have been discussed by BHHRG members on several occasions.[1] However, even in terms of the way in which the international community runs Kosovo itself, it can be seen that its attachment to the principle of the rule of law is very weak indeed. Moreover, it is to be feared that, as in Bosnia & Herzegovina [2], far from embodying the rule of law, the international bodies which have been put in place to run Kosovo are a law unto themselves. It seems that their actions are to no extent subject to the rule of law or due process.
The purpose of this report is to discuss the arrest by KFOR police and troops of three men on 14th December 2001 and their incarceration without charge or trial for 38 days. The report will argue that this was a gross violation of the principles of the rule of law, allegedly promoted by Western intervention. It is a rich and bitter paradox that such acts can occur in a territory where the doctrine of human rights is proclaimed loud and wide, and where international NGOs as well as local organizations claiming to protect human rights grow like weeds. The UNMiK authorities have even established an Ombudspersons’ office supposedly to guarantee the rights of the residents of Kosovo against incursions by the authorities. However, this report will argue that, as with so much international policy-making, these institutions and doctrines appear to be little more than tokenism designed to disguise what often appears to be arbitrary and often brutal rule of the international community.
[1] See for instance Victors’ Justice by John Laughland, The Spectator, and 9th February 2002. See Britain Insiders View of the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague by Christine Stone, 7/7/2000,
[2] See BHHRG report on Bosnia & Herzegovina, 2001.
