Former head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, William Walker, described today’s decision by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague to sentence four former KLA leaders to a combined 81 years in prison as a bad moment for Kosovo, the entire Balkans, and Europe.
Speaking to A2 CNN, he said the process had been a “mismanagement of justice” from the very beginning.
“It is a complete sadness and a bad moment for Kosovo, the entire Balkans, and Europe in general. The process has been a mismanagement of justice from the beginning. The process involved 10 years of investigation by the Special Prosecutor’s Office, followed by six years, four of which were spent in isolation without any kind of freedom, except for one day when Thaçi was allowed to attend his father’s funeral. But beyond that, they were found guilty in a rewriting of history. For six years, they were held in pretrial detention as if they were guilty.”
He expressed his disappointment with the European Union, which, according to him, has sought to draw a parallel between the actions of the Serbian authorities and those of the Kosovo Albanians, while failing to summon Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to The Hague to testify.
According to Walker, Vučić continues to carry out the same practices he employed as a propaganda minister during the era of Slobodan Milošević.
“I am very disappointed with the EU because, for its own political reasons, it has sought to draw an equivalence with the terrible things committed by the Serbian government, including Vučić. Why was he not taken up by the Special Prosecutor’s Office, or summoned to The Hague? I do not know why the EU established a judicial body to prosecute Albanians. If I return to Vučić, from Belgrade he continues to carry out the same practices he used as a propaganda minister during the time of Milošević. Therefore, I am very disappointed with the EU for making a biased approach to determining responsibility for the atrocities, for which there are many who should be held accountable,” he told A2 CNN.
The former U.S. ambassador said that since the war, he had witnessed aggression coming only from Serbia, while Kosovo and Albania had remained peaceful.
According to Walker, the court’s characterization of the KLA as a national army is incorrect.
“The war in Kosovo that I witnessed was unequal, involving the disproportionate use of force and ethnic cleansing. Since the war, I have seen aggression coming only from Serbia and not from Albania or Kosovo. Kosovo and Albania have been peaceful. I know the KLA, and the court proceeded on the premise that it was a national army with a chain of command, and that is wrong. As many regional commanders said, the KLA was an amalgamation without a central head. They came together for a common cause. Whenever I encountered the KLA, I dealt with regional commanders. This is a misjudgment of justice.”
