SUMMARY
Ex officio
Registration No. 8/01/I
Concerning the right to life of V.S. and V.N.
29 January 2002
In this Report, the Ombudsperson found that the investigation by the competent authorities into the killing of V.S. and V.N. on 3 February 2000 failed to meet the requirements of Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights guaranteeing the right to life. In this case, the competent authorities took no investigative actions between 11 September 2000 and 3 December 2001.
The Ombudsperson noted that Article 2 of the Convention requires the state to conduct an effective investigation when individuals have been killed as a result of the use of force, whether or not agents of the State are implicated in the killings. The effectiveness of any such investigation should be capable of leading to the identification and punishment of those responsible. Attributes of an effective investigation include such actions as the prompt and determined follow up of initial investigative steps, such as the questioning of suspects and witnesses, the search of premises and so forth. The Ombudsperson stressed, in this regard, that a difficult or even dangerous environment for security forces and police could not be a persistent excuse for the failure of the authorities to pursue effective investigative measures.
In this case, the Ombudsperson found that the authorities exercised proper diligence at the beginning of their investigations regarding the killings of V.S. and V.N. but that they were less diligent during succeeding months. He also found that from 11 September 2000 to 3 December 2001, the competent authorities had taken no substantive investigative action at all. The Ombudsperson considered that even should actions taken after 3 December 2001 bear fruit, a fifteen month gap in pursuing the investigation could not be considered acceptable. The inadequacy of the investigation, therefore, constituted a violation of the right to life guaranteed under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Ombudsperson recommended that the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, should, no later than 1 March 2002, ensure that the competent authorities actively pursue their investigations into the killings of V.S. and V.N. with a view to the indictment and prosecution of those responsible for the killings.
In a letter dated 12 March 2002, the SRSG stated that the UNMIK Police investigation had not yielded any evidence regarding the identity of the perpetrator or perpetrators of two unsolved murders that had occurred in Mitrovica on 3 February 2000, but that the Police were continuing their search for new witnesses.
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