Kosovo
Casualties and Victim Assistance
Casualties
Casualties Overview
|
All known casualties by end 2015 |
575 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties (116 killed; 459 injured) |
|
Casualties in 2015 |
1 (2014: 5) |
|
2015 casualties by outcome |
0 killed; 1 injured (2014: 1 killed; 4 injured) |
|
2015 casualties by item type |
1 ERW (2014: 2 unexploded submunitions; 3 ERW) |
One new ERW casualty was reported in Kosovo in 2015. A civilian was injured in an incident with a hand grenade.[1] Five cluster submunition and ERW casualties were reported in Kosovo in 2014.[2]
The 2015 casualty figure is a decrease from 2014 and similar to 2013 when no mine/ERW casualties were reported.[3] In 2012, seven mine/ERW casualties were identified in Kosovo in four separate incidents.[4] No casualties from antipersonnel mines in minefields have been reported in Kosovo since 2004.
Between 1999 and 2014, 575 mine/ERW casualties (116 killed; 459 injured) were identified in Kosovo. More than three quarters of all mine/ERW casualties (438 or 76%) were recorded between 1999 and 2000.[5]
Cluster munition casualties
At least 180 casualties from incidents involving unexploded submunitions were recorded between 1999 and the end of 2014. This total includes two new cluster munition casualties recorded in two separate incidents in 2014.[6] An additional 25 casualties, which occurred during cluster munition strikes in 1999, were also recorded.[7]
Victim Assistance
Protection of the rights of persons with disabilities is overseen by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare.[8] Legislation to ensure equal access to services for persons with disabilities exists, but implementation was challenging and administrative procedures required simplification. Inadequate institutional support and health services, and poor accessibility, hindered fulfilling the rights of persons with disabilities. Kosovo needed to improve the integration of persons with disabilities through better implementation of its 2013-2023 strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities and the strategy’s action plan for 2013-2015. Health and rehabilitation services for persons with disabilities are insufficient. Physical access to public institutions remained a challenge. The National Disability Council failed to adequately promote the rights of persons with disabilities through implementation of the strategy and action plan because it lacked support for undertaking its coordinating role from the Office for Good Governance, which is led by the office of the Prime Minister.[9]
[1] Email from Ahmet Sallova, Head, Kosovo Mine Action Center (KMAC), 4 May 2016.
[2] Ibid., 4 March 2015.
[3] Email from Andrew Moore, HALO Trust, 25 June 2013.
[4] Email from Ahmet Sallova, KMAC, 30 September 2013.
[5] Ibid.; and “List of Mine/UXO Civilian Victims in Kosovo 1999–2010,” provided by email from Bajram Krasniqi, Ministry for the Kosovo Security Force (MKSF), 21 March 2011.
[6] Handicap International (HI), Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 69; “Mine wounds two children in Kosovo,” Agence France-Presse (Pristina), 9 April 2007; “Land mine explodes in Kosovo; 4 children injured,” International Herald Tribune, 9 November 2007; email from Bajram Krasniqi, UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), 5 May 2009; and telephone interview with Bajram Krasniqi, UNMIK, 1 July 2009.
[7] HI, Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 69.
[8] United States Department of State, “2015 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Kosovo,” Washington, DC, 13 April 2016.
[9] European Commission, “Kosovo 2015 Report,” Commission Staff Working Document, 10 November 2015, pp. 12, 20, and 24.