Kosovo: UK May Face Second Legal Action

The British Ministry of Defence, MOD, which was successfully sued by Kosovar Albanians injured in a clash with UK troops, may face another legal action relating to the same incident.

Muhamet Bici and Skender Bici recently won an estimated 178,000 US dollars in damages from the MOD for injuries and trauma they suffered when British soldiers opened fire on a car they were travelling in on June 2, 1999.

The Bici cousins had been granted asylum in the UK, where they had been moved to receive medical treatment following the incident.

The April 7 judgement was the first successful high court damages claim won by civilians injured by UK peacekeeping forces in service abroad. Now the families of two men killed in the same incident have launched a legal bid for compensation – and are prepared to go to London to fight for it.

Fahri Bici and Avni Dudi died when paratroopers shot at the vehicle, which had failed to stop at a checkpoint. The Albanians had been firing a machine gun into the air to celebrate the withdrawal of Serbian troops following the NATO bombing campaign two weeks previously.

Shaban Bici, brother of Fahri, told IWPR, “It is still difficult to accept that my brother fought and survived the war but was killed in peace by the same British troops who liberated us.”

Avni’s 70-year-old father Liman cradles his five-year-old grandson, who was just a few months old when the incident happened. “This child never got to know his father because of this tragedy – the British army should at least guarantee him some sort of secure future with a similar payment to [that paid out] in London,” he said.

Shaban has now hired a lawyer, Avni Gjakova, to investigate the possiblity of further legal action. A dialogue has now begun with the British government to see if compensation can be paid out of court, but if London refuses to discuss this option, legal action will be taken, he warned.

The MOD press office would neither confirm nor deny that it was in communication with Gjakova, telling IWPR that such things are a private matter between the ministry and the individuals involved.

The MOD routinely pays compensation out of court to civilians injured as a result of its actions around the world. The budget for such payouts in 2003 alone ran to more than a billion dollars.

Avni Gjakova, the lawyer representing the Bici and Duli familes, stressed that their aim was not to embarrass the British Army or put it in a bad light.

“The families of the deceased only want financial compensation – they are not seeking to blame the British soldiers because, for them, they are liberators and came here to help,” the lawyer said.

Human rights activists believe the landmark victory in London may ensure that future peacekeeping operations take more care to safeguard civilians.

While the MOD had argued its forces had “combat immunity”, the judge ruled that the paratroopers had not been in a combat situation, and had owed the civilian population a greater duty of care.

At present, it is not possible for civilians to sue NATO troops in Kosovo courts. The entity’s ombudsman Marek Nowicki explained that this is because neither his office nor the United Nations police authority there have jurisdiction over the NATO forces.

“In cases where the Ombudsman receives a complaint against KFOR, there is very little we can do here. Normally we have to lobby the country which supplied the forces in question to NATO, and the relevant defence ministry,” he said.

Philip Leach, the director of European Human Rights Advocacy Centre, EHRAC, says that a legal framework for suing KFOR soldiers exists, but outside the region

“Following allegations of human rights violations, soldiers from Council of Europe states are currently being taken to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,” he told New Law Journal.

Gazmend Nushi, a lawyer with the local Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms organisation, who is handling the first such case in Strasbourg, told IWPR, “It has taken four years for the [human rights court] in Strasbourg to consider the case that we brought on behalf of Behrani family against French KFOR troops, and this has been a painful process for the family.”

The case involves the death of eight-year-old Gadaf Behrani and injuries suffered by his brother Bekim, in a mine explosion near their home village of Brabanovc, in the French KFOR-controlled north of Kosovo.

The family alleges that KFOR was aware of the minefield and did not do anything to clear it, and is therefore liable for the death and injuries – a charge the alliance denies. The case is ongoing, and it expected to last some time.

Fatos Bytyci is a journalist with Radio Television of Kosova, RTK and Jeta Xharra is IWPR’s Kosovo project manager.