Agush Buja, former secretary of the leadership of the Popular Movement of Kosovo abroad, has provided details about the creation of the “Vendlindja Thërret” fund in Winterthur, contributions from the diaspora, and the dispatch of Swiss military vehicles for the needs of the war in Kosovo.
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According to the prestigious Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, or NZZ, Switzerland was one of the most important centers for the political, financial and logistical organization of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Buja’s testimony was published ahead of the verdict expected to be handed down in The Hague against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. Buja, who lives in Switzerland, considers the country’s role in the formation and strengthening of the KLA decisive.
“Switzerland was of tremendous importance for the founding of the KLA,” he told NZZ.
During the 1990s, the Popular Movement of Kosovo operated publicly in Switzerland as a political organization. It had an elected leadership, its own newspaper and an extensive structure among the Albanian diaspora.
As the 1998–1999 war approached, the distinction between the activities of the Popular Movement of Kosovo and those of the KLA began to fade increasingly. The Popular Movement secured funds, collected materials and encouraged Albanians in the diaspora to join the war.
Buja sees the connection between the two organizations as inseparable. “The Popular Movement of Kosovo and the KLA cannot be separated. The armed organization emerged directly from the program of the Popular Movement,” he said.
According to his account, during the 1980s Albanian activists in Switzerland used demonstrations and political activity in their efforts to liberate Kosovo from Yugoslav rule. Later, the focus shifted to armed resistance.
“We understood that we had to achieve our aims in another way,” Buja said.
An important moment was a meeting of the Popular Movement’s leaders in 1993, in the hall of a restaurant in Winterthur. The meeting discussed how to finance the war.
As a result of this organization, the “Vendlindja Thërret” fund was created, later becoming one of the KLA’s main sources of funding. NZZ writes that it secured materials needed for the war, including weapons and ammunition.
Buja says that more than 1,000 people authorized to collect contributions from Albanians living abroad were active in Switzerland alone. “Tens of thousands of people donated,” he said.
In July 1998, as the war in Kosovo had expanded, Switzerland’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office ordered the “Vendlindja Thërret” fund’s account to be frozen. Buja was also temporarily arrested, while his home and the fund’s office in Aarau were searched.
Investigators questioned him about a large sum of money sent to Albania and whether the funds had been used to purchase weapons.
Both at the time and today, Buja has stated that he did not know whether the money had been used for weapons. According to him, the funds were intended for the general needs of the KLA and the population, including food, clothing and “possibly weapons as well.”
The account was later unfrozen, while proceedings against Buja ended in 2004 without charges being filed and without a conviction.
Switzerland’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office told NZZ that several other proceedings concerning suspected weapons purchases also did not end in convictions at the federal level. The authorities explained that some suspects had left the country, some could be prosecuted in Albania, while other cases were transferred to cantonal authorities.
NZZ also mentions an event from the beginning of 1999. According to former Kosovar activists, KLA supporters obtained several dozen demobilized Swiss army trucks and sent them toward Albania.
The transport was presented to Swiss and Italian authorities as a shipment of humanitarian aid. However, the activists quoted by NZZ claim that the trucks were loaded with weapons in Albania and were subsequently used by KLA ground forces in Kosovo.
The newspaper emphasizes that these are accounts by former activists and not conclusions confirmed by any court ruling.
NZZ describes Switzerland as a country with a special role in Kosovo’s history. According to the newspaper, the country gave political space to activists who later became KLA leaders, joined the NATO-led peacekeeping mission, KFOR, and recognized Kosovo’s independence in 2008, just ten days after it was declared.
The newspaper also recalls that Hashim Thaçi had lived in Switzerland. He moved to Dietikon in 1994 and studied Eastern European history at the University of Zurich.
Buja says he knew Thaçi and supported him during that period. He also brought him into an Albanian cultural association in St. Gallen.
According to NZZ, several of the leading figures in Kosovo’s political and military elite later emerged from this group of activists.
NZZ links the publication of this history to the verdict that the Specialist Chambers are expected to deliver on September 16 against Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi.
All four face charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes, based on various forms of individual criminal responsibility. They have denied the charges and pleaded not guilty.
NZZ clarifies that the history of the diaspora’s financing and supplying of the KLA does not demonstrate that the “Vendlindja Thërret” fund was linked to the crimes included in the indictment.
Agush Buja says he still believes that he and his fellow activists were on the right side of history. After retiring, he intends to write his memoirs to document his personal perspective on the events that led to Kosovo’s liberation.
