Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama will take part in a nationwide protest in Tirana on October 17 calling for justice for former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders on trial at The Hague, organisers said on Tuesday.
The protest, organised by the War Veterans’ Association of the Kosovo Liberation Army (OVL-UÇK), is expected to draw over 100,000 participants from Albania, Kosovo and other Albanian-populated regions.
“This is a protest for justice and national dignity,” said Hysni Gucati, head of the OVL-UÇK, at a press conference. “It will be peaceful and open to all Albanians to show unity in support of those who fought for freedom.”
Among the speakers will be former Albanian President Alfred Moisiu and Ali Ahmeti, leader of North Macedonia’s Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) and a former KLA ally. Their presence, alongside Rama’s, is seen as a symbol of political and national unity amid growing criticism of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Gucati said 60 buses will travel from Kosovo to Tirana for the rally. “We are coming to tell the world that the KLA’s war was just — a fight for freedom, not crime,” he said.
The rally follows a similar demonstration held in The Hague on September 14, where thousands of Albanians from across Europe protested in support of former KLA commanders Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi.
The four men, who have denied charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, say the case is politically motivated and seeks to “rewrite the history” of Kosovo’s 1998–99 war for independence from Serbia.
Friday’s protest in Tirana is expected to send a message of solidarity and resistance: that justice for the KLA should not mean the criminalization of Kosovo’s liberation war.