The Albanian Ambassadors Council (AAC) has said it received with deep concern the first-instance judgment handed down by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, based in The Hague, against former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
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The AAC emphasizes that it respects the rule of law, the independence of judicial bodies and the right of every victim to seek justice, but says it is deeply disappointed by the decision. According to the Council, serious questions also arise over the unusually lengthy proceedings, the defendants’ years-long detention, the proportionality of the sentences and the standards applied during the trial.
In its statement, the Council recalls that the Kosovo Liberation Army waged a just war of liberation against the oppression, ethnic cleansing and organized violence carried out by Slobodan Milošević’s regime. The KLA’s struggle had the support of the democratic world, while NATO’s intervention halted a humanitarian tragedy that had forced around one million Kosovo Albanians to flee their homes.
The AAC underscores that the state, military and police apparatus of the Milošević regime, along with its senior leaders, was tried and convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes committed in Kosovo and other parts of the former Yugoslavia. The killings, massacres, forced expulsions and systematic persecution of civilians, documented as crimes committed by that regime, cannot be minimized or placed on the same footing as the Kosovar people’s struggle for freedom and that of their leaders.
According to the Council, the ruling against the four former KLA leaders does not constitute, and should not be interpreted as, a condemnation of the people of Kosovo, the Kosovo Liberation Army or its struggle for freedom and independence. No judgment can diminish the sacrifice of thousands of martyrs and victims, deny Kosovo’s historic right to be free or erase the fundamental distinction between the aggressor and the victim. The liberating nature of the war and Kosovo’s history cannot be changed.
The Albanian Ambassadors Council notes that the initial reactions from the international community have once again highlighted the importance of justice and accountability. Meanwhile, the judgment has prompted strong objections and concerns both in Kosovo and among the diaspora.
Under these circumstances, the AAC calls on Kosovo’s international partners to adopt a clear and balanced position. Respect for judicial proceedings, it says, should not be used to downplay Serbian aggression, create moral equivalence between the parties or rewrite the history of Kosovo’s war of liberation.
The AAC expects the evidence, legal conclusions, the manner in which responsibility was determined and the proportionality of the sentences to be examined impartially and with the utmost rigor during the appeals process. At the same time, all the rights of those convicted to a fair trial must be guaranteed. The Council recalls that this is only a first-instance judgment and that legal avenues have not yet been exhausted.
The Albanian Ambassadors Council also calls on the international community to apply the same standards of justice to the mass crimes committed in Kosovo by Serbian state forces. Justice cannot be considered complete, equal and credible while a large number of those responsible for massacres, expulsions, sexual violence, destruction and enforced disappearances continue to go unpunished.
In conclusion, the AAC expresses solidarity with the people of Kosovo and the families of those convicted, while appealing for calm, unity, dignity and confidence in the legal remedies provided by law.
