In a rare show of unanimity, Kosovo MPs on Monday adopted a statement expressing “deep concern” over this month’s Hague court conviction for war crimes of four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA – Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.
The statement supported by 99 MPs calls on Kosovo’s institutions to take action “to protect the truth and purity of the liberation war of the people of Kosovo”. Ethnic Serb MPs from the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party were not present for the vote.
The text calls for the drafting of a common state strategy that would coordinate actions “for the protection and affirmation of the full historical truth about the just war for freedom and liberation of Kosovo.
“[Parliament] considers the conclusion [of the verdict] on the existence of a common criminal intent unacceptable,”= the statement added.
Kosovo’s ex-President, Thaci, and his co-defendants, former parliament speakers Krasniqi and Veseli and former MP Selimi, were sentenced to 25, 25, 18 and 13 years in jail respectively on September 16.
All four were found guilty of responsibility for crimes carried out while they were senior officials of the KLA during the 1998-99 war with Serbian forces.
They were found not guilty of crimes against humanity, of persecution, imprisonment, other inhumane acts, torture, murder and enforced disappearances.
Thaci, Veseli, Krasniqi and Selimi all pleaded not guilty to all charges and will appeal the verdict.
Since the verdict was announced, hundreds of people have been protesting in the capital, Prishtina, and in other cities in Kosovo and abroad. Many Kosovo Albanians deem the Hague verdict an attack on the KLA’s just war for liberation.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was created specifically to try former members of the KLA, under pressure from Kosovo’s Western allies. The court is widely disliked in Kosovo, where it is seen as denigrating the KLA’s struggle.
Parallel with the statement, the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, is urging parliament to support amendments to the law on Specialist Chambers, approved in 2015, which would limit the scope of the chambers.
“Parliament has done its job, now it’s for the government to address the draft law [on the Specialist Chambers] responsibly. It should address it with urgency because there is no reason for delays. We saw with the Statement that there is a will. We expect the government to work on it today and send it to parliament tomorrow, or the day after,” Arian Tahiri, head of the PDK parliamentary group, said on Monday.
