Albania’s Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha has criticized the first-instance verdict against former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, calling the sentences “unjust” and “undeserved.”
Reacting to the judgment by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Berisha described the day as a difficult one for Albanians, the families of the former KLA leaders and Kosovo.
“Today is certainly not a good day for Albanians, for the entire nation, for the families of the former political leaders of Kosovo’s Liberation War and for Kosovo,” Berisha said.
He argued that the Specialist Chambers had failed to substantiate what he described as concrete evidence against the former KLA leaders, instead relying on what he characterized as claims repeatedly promoted by Belgrade.
“The first-instance court in The Hague communicated decisions that absolutely failed to substantiate anything concrete, apart from general statements that have been repeated dozens and hundreds of times by Belgrade’s propaganda,” Berisha said.
Berisha said the four former KLA leaders should instead have been acquitted.
“It handed down entirely undeserved sentences instead of declaring the former political leaders of the Liberation War and Kosovo innocent in the name of justice,” he said.
He also said the verdict would be welcomed in Serbia, arguing that the judgments represented an outcome favorable to Belgrade.
According to Berisha, however, the verdict could not alter his assessment of the KLA’s role in the 1998–1999 Kosovo war.
“Nothing can overshadow the liberation war of the people of Kosovo, which they led, as the brightest chapter in the Albanians’ struggles for freedom and national dignity since the wars of Skanderbeg,” he said.
Berisha also emphasized the role of NATO, describing the KLA as a ground ally of the Alliance during the Kosovo war.
“The Kosovo Liberation Army fought a war with which, together with and in support of NATO, and as NATO’s ally on the ground, it liberated the last colony in Europe, Kosovo, from barbaric Serbian occupation,” Berisha said.
The Specialist Chambers sentenced Thaçi and Krasniqi to 25 years in prison each, Veseli to 18 years and Selimi to 13 years. The defendants were convicted of several war crimes but acquitted of six counts concerning crimes against humanity.
The judgments are first-instance decisions and remain subject to appeal.
