How North Macedonia Traded Justice for Peace

Although five potential war crimes cases were initially investigated by the North Macedonia's authorities in 2002, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, then took over the cases.

But when the Tribunal decided to focus on high-profile cases only, so it would complete its caseload in time for its planned shutdown in 2017, it sent back four of them to the North Macedonia's judiciary.

However, the transferred cases against members of the NLA did not end in convictions or acquittals because the North Macedonia's authorities - supported by the country's leading politicians - adopted an amnesty for the sake of inter-ethnic political cooperation and reconciliation.

Status of cases unknown Smoke rises from houses in the village of Ljuboten during fighting between Macedonian police and ethnic Albanian guerrillas in August 2001. Photo: EPA/GEORGI LICOVSKI.

Out of the five initial war crimes cases, the ICTY only delivered a verdict in the so-called Ljuboten case.

In 2010, the ICTY's appeals chamber sentenced North Macedonia's police officer Johan Tarculovski to 12 years in prison for ordering, planning, and instigating the murder of three Albanian civilians, as well as the cruel treatment of others and wanton destruction in the village of Ljuboten in August 2001. Former Interior Minister Ljubo Boskoski was acquitted of the charges.

The only case that was heard by a North Macedonia's court was the 'Mavrovo Road Workers' case, in which the Public Prosecutor's Office indicted a total of 22 former NLA members for abducting and torturing seven Macedonian road workers in 2001.

However, after the controversial 2002 Amnesty Law, the court halted the proceedings.

The current...