Netherlands: Specialist proescutor for investigation into Kosovan war crimes announced

David Schwendiman has been appointed as the specialist Prosecutor for the investigation into war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLO), at the new Hague Court, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Thursday. His appointment was preceded by Dr. Fidelma Donlon accepting his position as a registrar in the case.
Schwendiman said that his appointment marked "the formal transition of the EU's special investigative task force into the specialist prosecutor's office," adding that "the appointment gives me authority to prosecute cases arising out of the investigations conducted and carried out by the task force and investigations that the newly established prosecutor's office will conduct."
He went on to assert his impartiality, stating: "I will make decisions based solely on the facts: the facts we have and will continue to collect and on our best reading of the law. Not on whether what I decide to do has political, diplomatic, or any other consequence or implication."
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was set up after substantial pressure from the EU for the government in the region of Kosovo to address allegations of war crimes against Serbs. Late leader of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic is among several Serbs who have been prosecuted for war crimes against the KLO and ethnic Albanians in the 1990s.