Kosovo’s political leaders and senior officials from Albania voiced support on Thursday for former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) facing war crimes charges in The Hague, after thousands of people joined a rally in Pristina denouncing what they called injustice by the special court.
The protest came as several former KLA leaders, including ex-president Hashim Thaci, remain in detention in The Hague on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity during and after the 1998-99 conflict. They have pleaded not guilty.
Memli Krasniqi, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), thanked citizens for turning out at the demonstration. “Thank you Kosovo,” he wrote on Facebook. Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) leader Ramush Haradinaj said simply: “Kosovo demands justice.”
Fatmir Limaj, head of Nisma për Kosovën, said Kosovo was seeking “truth and equality before the law” and accused parliament of failing to monitor the work of the special court. Limaj said he had proposed in 2019 that lawmakers engage independent international institutes to professionally monitor the court’s proceedings in The Hague to boost transparency and protect the rights of defendants.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama questioned Kosovo’s parliament for not adopting a cross-party resolution listing what he called “numerous violations” of fair trial standards by the court. He said Albania’s parliament would endorse such a resolution if Kosovo’s lawmakers passed it. “Freedom has a name and it is not guilty,” Rama said.
Elisa Spiropali, speaker of Albania’s parliament, called the rally in Pristina a confirmation of “deep pan-Albanian indignation” over what she described as a historic injustice. She accused the court of holding the former commanders “in contradiction with every legal, international, moral, logical and human standard.”
Ali Ahmeti, leader of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) in North Macedonia, told the rally the KLA had abided by the laws of war and targeted only military objectives. “This war brought Kosovo to victory and independence,” he said, crediting the commanders with helping bring NATO and the United States into the Balkans after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic.
Eugen Cakolli of the Kosovo Democratic Institute said criticism of the court did not mean Kosovo was wrong to agree to its creation in 2015, but faulted authorities for failing to treat the process as a state challenge requiring a proactive international communication strategy. He said the court had raised “serious concerns about transparency, objectivity and accountability.”
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, based in The Hague, was set up with European Union backing to prosecute alleged crimes committed by KLA members during the conflict. Supporters of the defendants say the court unfairly targets former KLA fighters, while victims’ groups and rights organisations have urged respect for judicial independence.