Prishtina – Three opposition parties said they would vote against legislation to create a new EU-backed special court to try former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters for alleged war crimes.

Three opposition parties in Kosovo’s parliament have said that they will vote against the draft law which aims to establish the new Netherlands-based special court that is expected to prosecute senior figures from the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The vice-president of the opposition Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA) party, Jakup Krasniqi, said that the government and international community should first admit that they had not managed to establish the rule of law since the end of the Kosovo conflict in 1999.

“To create the special court, there is a need to confirm that during those 15 years, [the UN mission in Kosovo] UNMIK, [the EU rule-of-law mission] EULEX and the political parties running the country have failed to establish the justice system in Kosovo,” Krasniqi told BIRN.

MP Rexhep Selimi from the opposition Vetevendosje party questioned why a special court was being set up to try only Kosovo Albanians.

“There is no special court for Serbia to punish the crimes that the Serbian state committed, that it caused in the Balkans, so why there is a need to create a special court for Albanians?” Selimi told Kosovo newspaper Zeri.

Ramush Haradinaj, president of the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, has also told media that his party will vote against the draft law.

Recently-installed Prime Minister Isa Mustafa has admitted that the special court is a challenge for Kosovo but said it would dispel all suspicions about alleged war crimes by Kosovo Liberation Army members forever.

“I think [the law] will pass in parliament. I don’t see any reasons for opposition parties to vote against it because this court is not related to the opposition or parties in power,” Mustafa told media last week.

The draft law is expected to be approved even if the 33 MPs from the three opposition parties vote against it. Two-thirds of the 120 lawmakers in parliament have to vote in favour for it to be passed.

The new court was supposed to begin work this month but has been delayed because of the political dispute that left Kosovo without a government for six month after national elections in June 2014.

It is due to be set up in the Netherlands and some senior Kosovo Liberation Army figures are expected to be indicted for alleged crimes committed during and after the 1998-99 war with Serbian forces./balkaninsight/