Rahovec, 10 May 2012
Outreach representative Shkelzen Dhomi today travelled to the town of Rahovec, in western Kosovo, where he gave a presentation on the work and achievements of the ICTY to 37 students from the local high school. Shkelzen was joined by Ms Nora Ahmetaj, the director of Kosovo’s Centre for Research Documentation and Publication, who also talked to the young audience about the work of her organisation.
The students had a number of insightful questions for Shkelzen, and were particularly interested in the case of KLA member Haradin Bala, sentenced by the ICTY to 13 years' imprisonment on 27 September 2007.
Ms Ahmetaj then talked to the students about transitional justice mechanisms, focusing on the key areas in the struggle against impunity: the right to know, the right to justice, the right to reparations and the guarantee of non-recurrence.
She discussed the importance of the fight against impunity in post-conflict societies in general and in Kosovo in particular.
Among the comments left by the students in the questionnaires distributed by Shkelzen were: “I think that such seminars should take place more, as we would like more information about the work of the ICTY”, and “Reconciliation will only come once all sides in the conflict accept the truth based on the facts”.