The recent war in Kosovo is estimated to have left tens of thousands of people sexually assaulted, most of them women.

However, even 23 years later, it seems that most victims do not want to talk about this topic.

Leonora Selmani, who has been chairing the Government Commission for Recognition and Verification of the Status of Violent Persons during the War for about seven months, says that not all victims are ready to be part of this process.

"Currently we have 1715 cases and this does not mean that there are no more victims of sexual violence, but it does mean that not all have been willing to apply so far.

For this reason, even when the legislation we have in force today has been made, the law, regulations and other bylaws are supposed to be given 5 years to apply because not all victims want to apply immediately, some of them have created families, some of them have different personal reasons ", said Leonora Selmani from the Government Commission.

Leonora Selmani

This is also confirmed by Sebahate Pacolli Krasniqi, who with the Kosovo Center for Rehabilitation of Torture Survivors, has been dealing with such cases since the post-war period.

"Even in these 20 years and more we are talking about survivors who have said that we come here for rehabilitation and medical treatment, but by no means are they ready to open this issue to the commission for application purposes.

"Even, there are cases that have been found somehow, have left Kosovo, there are cases that unfortunately do not live anymore, so that number is significantly smaller", said Sebahate Pacolli Krasniqi.

Most of the cases that have applied to the government commission for status recognition are not being handled by law enforcement agencies.

Sebahate Pacolli Krasniqi

This is because many rape survivors also want their cases to remain confidential, but also because of the lack of handling of cases by justice institutions themselves.

"For most of the survivors, the punishment of criminals is the highest level of expectations that the survivors have for such a crime to be punished, but the results in this regard are very small, you know so far we have only one case that he received the sentence for sexual crimes during the war ", added Sebahate Pacolli Krasniqi.

For this issue, Dukagjini Television has sent questions to the Special Prosecution Office that deals with the investigation of war crimes, but they have not returned answers.

The Judicial Council said that they do not have data on how many cases of sexual rape during the war are being tried in the courts of Kosovo. / Portal D /