On the Main Characteristics of Compensation Claims Arising from the Widespread Destruction of Residential Property in the Aftermath of the Kosovo* Conflict

Matijević, Milica V. (2016) On the Main Characteristics of Compensation Claims Arising from the Widespread Destruction of Residential Property in the Aftermath of the Kosovo* Conflict. Strani pravni život, 60 (4). pp. 181-198. ISSN 0039-2138

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Abstract

The violence which spread through Kosovo in the first months after the arrival of the UN and NATO troops left many Serbs, Roma and members of other minority communities without homes. Their houses were set on free, demolished and looted. In the following years almost nothing was done to enable their return. The reconstruction projects were scarce, while the extra-judicial property restitution mechanisms had no mandate to deal with the destroyed property. Left with no other remedy, between 2004 and 2005, the owners of demolished property lodged a great number of compensation claims before the courts in Kosovo. The plaintiffs sought damages from UNMIK, KFOR and the local institutions established after June 1999. Despite the fact that the compensation claims had become well known for the controversial decision of UNMIK to order stay of proceedings in these cases, as well for the complex legal issues they posed, so far there have been no official accounts of their basic characteristics. The author aims to fill that lacuna by presenting results of the research conducted on the copies of the compensation claims lawsuits archived in the Court Liaison Offce in Gračanica/Graçanicë.

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