Kosovo: Skandal und sozialer Wandel. Die Folgen des Marty-Berichts für die Selbst- und Fremdwahrnehmung Kosovos
Kosovo: Scandal and Social Change. The Consequences of the Marty-Report for Kosovo’s Perception

Summary/Abstract: The article argues that the Report to the European Parliamentary Assembly provided by EPAR-Rapporteur Dick Marty on “Inhuman Treatment of People and Illicit Trafficking in Human Organs in Kosovo” of January 2011 provoked a media scandal aiming at the reputation of a part of Kosovo’s political elite and their international supporters. The scandal influences the way the Kosovo war is perceived in a broader Western public and possibly helps to initiate a discussion in the Albanian-speaking public sphere about the role of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the conflict in 1998/1999. After a systematic presentation of the Report (sources, methods, framing of the conflict and its actors), the article shows how the Report changed the hitherto black-and-white perception of the Kosovo conflict in Western media. Not only is a part of the KLA scandalized by their alleged war crimes but also their international protectors who failed to prosecute the perpetrators. The assessment adds to a growing skepticism on the success of Western “democracy export”. Finally it is shown how the Report initiated a reluctant discussion about a taboo in the Albanian public sphere: KLA’s warfare.

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