Berisha from Strasbourg: The Appeals Court should assess the convictions of former KLA leaders objectively

Democratic Party Chairman Sali Berisha spoke at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe about the political situation in Kosovo and the decisions by the Specialist Chambers in The Hague concerning former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

During his speech, Berisha commented on the repeated elections in Kosovo, which, according to him, were held in accordance with international standards for parliamentary elections. He said that the repetition of electoral processes, linked to the way the President is elected, should be prevented. For this reason, he called for the support of the Council of Europe and the Venice Commission in drafting a more practical mechanism for electing the President of the Republic.

Speaking about the decisions against former KLA leaders in The Hague, the DP leader said they had prompted protests in Pristina. According to him, citizens’ reaction was linked to comparisons between these cases and others, as well as what he described as a lack of clear evidence of specific criminal acts.

Berisha criticized the way the trials in The Hague were conducted, claiming that the criminal proceedings had focused only on one side of the conflict.

“Recently, the sentences handed down by the Kosovo court in The Hague have followed, surprisingly, clear ethnic lines. Contrary to its statute, the court has prosecuted only the victim side and not the aggressor. Therefore, let us hope that the Appeals Court will review their cases more objectively,” Berisha declared.

He also devoted part of his speech to Serbia and Ratko Mladić, condemning the burial of the former Bosnian Serb commander with state honors.

“The state funeral with honors for the butcher of Bosnia, the orchestrator of the largest genocide in Europe since the Second World War in Srebrenica, was a second execution, 31 years later, of 8,500 boys and men, solely because of their religious and ethnic identity,” he said.

Berisha described the act as “a grave insult to all humanity” and linked the stance of Belgrade and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić to political and electoral developments in Serbia.

“This is a grave insult to all humanity, a stance taken by Belgrade and Mr. Aleksandar Vučić, who seeks to win the elections with the ghost of Mr. Ratko Mladić,” Berisha said.