Request for 45 years in prison, there were numerous reactions in Kosovo to the process in The Hague
There were numerous reactions in Kosovo today after the Prosecution at the Specialist Chambers in The Hague requested 45 years in prison for former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi, former parliamentarians Kadri Veseli and Jakup Krasniqi, and former MP Rexhep Selimi.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani said that "Any attempt to equate the KLA's liberation war with the crimes of the Serbian genocidal aggressor undermines faith in justice and severely damages long-term peace."
"Genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are crimes that Serbia committed against the people of Kosovo over the centuries. During the last war in Kosovo, Serbia aimed to exterminate the Albanian people, a goal that it manifested through the murder and massacre of thousands of children, women, men and the elderly, the rape of thousands of women and men, the destruction of hundreds of thousands of homes, the expulsion of over 80% of Kosovo's citizens from their homes, ethnic cleansing, the forced disappearance of thousands of people and other horrific crimes," President Osmani's response states.
According to Osmani, "Kosovo and its citizens demand justice." "The KLA's war was just and pure. This truth cannot be changed by attempts to rewrite history and tarnish and devalue the struggle of the people of Kosovo for freedom."
Even former Minister of Justice, Albulena Haxhiu, in her reaction says that "The Prosecution's request for a prison sentence of 45 years for each of the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army is an act of injustice and an insult to the Albanian victims of the war."
"This has nothing to do with an effort for justice. This is a prosecutorial attempt for political and selective punishment against a just liberation war," writes Haxhiu. According to her, "Requesting so many years of imprisonment for KLA leaders and soldiers is a tendency to strip Kosovo of the moral right to liberation and a tendency to equate the victim with the executioner."
Even the party that won the last elections in Kosovo, and which is expected to form the government, the Vetevendosje Movement, in its reaction, says that "the request of the Specialized Prosecutor's Office (ZPS) for a sentence of 45 years in prison for each of the former KLA leaders who are being tried in The Hague, is a policy that aims to overthrow the order of truth and not an act of seeking justice."
"Milosevic's Serbia's Yugoslavia committed genocide in Kosovo. This is the truth. The KLA fought against genocidal plans and actions by protecting the people with all the strength at its disposal," the LVV's response states, among other things.
It further states that the request for sentences of 45 years for each of the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army is not a neutral demand for justice, but a political intervention in the register of memory and history.
"Here, individuals are not being judged out of context, but rather an attempt is being made to judge the act of liberation itself. This is a process that shifts attention from the aggressor to the victim and presents resistance to the occupation as a crime, while the occupation as a silent background," the LVV's response states.
International justice must decide impartially
Even the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, Bedri Hamza, a party founded by former KLA leaders, says that "the start of the final phase of a long and difficult judicial process in The Hague is a process that does not only represent a legal act, but is also a test of international conscience towards the truth."
"For more than five years, our liberators, their defense teams and key witnesses, stood with dignity and powerful arguments, refuting the accusations one by one. It is now expected that international justice, impartially and unbiasedly, will make its final decision. We believe in the innocence of Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selim, because we believe in the historical truth and in the just struggle of the people of Kosovo for freedom and independence," wrote PDK leader Bedri Hamza.
On February 17, Kosovo marks the 18th anniversary of its independence and on this day, the organization "Freedom Has a Name" has planned to hold a protest in Pristina with the motto "Justice Not Politics". Representatives of this organization, who say that during the trial in The Hague "violations have been committed", will demand justice through the protest.
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