The September 16 verdict in The Hague, sentencing Hashim Thaçi and Jakup Krasniqi to 25 years in prison each, Kadri Veseli to 18 years and Rexhep Selimi to 13 years, has sparked numerous reactions among the public and across the political arena.
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Publicist Elida Buçpapaj has also joined the debate. In a Facebook post, she called for an end to campaigns against the Specialist Chambers and urged respect for justice, reconciliation and coordination with Kosovo’s allies.
Buçpapaj also opposes calls to shut down the Specialist Chambers, arguing that the case of the four convicted men should be addressed solely through legal and institutional mechanisms, “Bota Sot” reports.
In her response, she described the publication of lists showing who voted for and who did not support the establishment of the Specialist Chambers as shameful.
According to Buçpapaj, Hashim Thaçi acted correctly, as did the MPs who voted in favor of their establishment. She mentions claims that Thaçi had been led to believe that justice would overlook him, but stresses that justice must be the same for everyone.
The publicist says she saw Glauk Konjufca’s reaction from The Hague, the positions of the de facto leader of the PDK together with Vlora Çitaku, as well as what she calls populist choruses wearing black masks and frog choruses on social media. According to her, these voices claim to defend the values of the KLA and join Edvin Rama’s “shame” campaign against the Specialist Chambers.
Buçpapaj describes him as one of the two authors of the initiative for a territorial exchange, a process that, according to her, involved Thaçi and sent him to The Hague.
She calls for the campaign against the Specialist Chambers to end immediately and for the advice of Kosovo’s existential ally, conveyed through the U.S. Department of State, to be heeded, along with the positions of allied countries, including friendly Croatia.
Buçpapaj says she is critical of Ms. Marta Kos, but not in this instance, because she agrees with her statement that reconciliation is needed.
According to her, reconciliation and freedom must be built by recognizing and valuing the Specialist Chambers.
She argues that this is the way to help the four men tried by the Specialist Chambers. Buçpapaj stresses that the court’s chief prosecutors are all American and that its presiding judge is American, while its other prosecutors and judges come from the EU, England and Switzerland. She adds that funding is provided directly by these countries so that Kosovo can have justice based on Western standards and function as a state governed by the rule of law.
The publicist calls for abandoning what she describes as crazy ideas about shutting down the Specialist Chambers, warning that such an action would harm both the Four and Kosovo.
She also urges people not to seek support from Richard Grenell, whom she describes as an “anti-American American charlatan,” because she believes his support is detrimental to the Four and Kosovo.
Buçpapaj also calls for distancing from Edi Rama, recalling that he called the former chief prosecutor of the Specialist Chambers a “hitman,” while yesterday he described the Specialist Chambers as a “shame.”
Her response also calls for an end to the holding hostage of Kosovo’s institutions and to going through three rounds of elections because, according to her, this situation is harming the country and the Four.
She calls for crimes not to be covered up through silence and for victims not to be denied justice. Buçpapaj mentions Defense Minister Ahmet Krasniqi of the FARK, who was killed in the middle of Tirana, as well as other victims, including prominent figures, campaigners, commanders, activists, MPs and journalists. According to her, addressing these cases is in the interests of Kosovo and the Four.
Another of her demands is an end to the manipulation and abuse of free speech by political clients, whom she calls false defenders of the Four because they present only parts of the truth rather than the full picture.
Buçpapaj calls for an end to what she considers a war against the Republic of Kosovo through the two-year institutional deadlock. She calls this situation a disgrace for the political class and says it works against the interests of Kosovo and the Four while serving Vučić’s Serbia.
According to her, the time for reconciliation has arrived, which rules out any blockade or blackmail of the Republic of Kosovo by political actors and, consequently, any such action against the Four. This reconciliation, she stresses, must be founded on justice.
Buçpapaj says that perhaps she is wrong and asks God for forgiveness when she thinks that 24 years of pretrial detention would be sufficient for each victim. Nevertheless, she insists that there must be accountability, an admission of guilt and an apology so that Kosovo can open a new chapter that would morally liberate the Four.
She recalls the message James Rubin delivered from Kosovo before his testimony in The Hague: after their recognized contribution and completed mission, the War Wing must leave the political stage. According to Buçpapaj, that time has now come.
The publicist believes that nothing can be added to or taken away from Kosovo’s history, just as the merits of those who earned them or the guilt of those she calls jackals cannot be diminished.
According to her, the Republic of Kosovo and the Four must now be defended by respecting, at every level, the Western-standard justice of the Specialist Chambers. She calls for the engagement of state institutions and diplomacy, in coordination with the proven allies of the Albanians who saved Kosovo from the genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out by the criminal state of the Balkans’ chief butcher.
Buçpapaj stresses that this goal cannot be achieved by silencing witnesses, leaving victims’ case files covered in dust or threatening the Republic of Kosovo with gangs of individuals blacklisted by the United States.
She believes that the policy and methodology pursued so far, presented as support for the Four but based on confrontation, obstruction and holding the state hostage, have caused extreme harm to the Republic of Kosovo and particularly to the Four.
Buçpapaj says the Four should not be compared with Ante Gotovina. Instead, she calls for work toward reconciliation by recognizing the Specialist Chambers, in the interests of the Republic of Kosovo, stability and peace in the Balkans, and the liberation of the Four.
She asks whether 24 years are enough for each betrayal, while emphasizing that an apology opens the way to forgiveness and reconciliation so that fratricide is never repeated.
Finally, Buçpapaj writes that every journalist, in the course of their work, should put themselves in the position of the victims, the perpetrators and the families of both sides. According to her, journalists must also bear in mind the interests of a state governed by the rule of law—meaning all citizens without exception—so that everyone can live with dignity and in peace.
In a final note, she cites as one of Hashim Thaçi’s mistakes the fact that he did not meet Senator Bobe Dole in Skopje on March 5, 1999, because he was unable to do so, but met Paskal Milo in Tirana on March 7, 1999.
