Berisha opposes ruling on former KLA leaders: Unjust and undeserved sentences

Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha reacted today to the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers’ decision to convict former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi of war crimes.

According to Berisha, this is a difficult day for Albanians, Kosovo and the families of the former KLA leaders.

“Naturally, today is not a good day for Albanians, for the entire nation, for Kosovo or for the families of the former political leaders of the Kosovo Liberation War. The court of first instance in The Hague issued rulings in which it utterly failed to establish anything concrete, apart from general claims repeated tens and hundreds of times by Belgrade’s propaganda,” Berisha said.

The Democratic Party leader called the sentences unjust, stressing that the former leaders of the KLA and Kosovo should have been acquitted.

“Instead of declaring the former political leaders of the Liberation War and Kosovo innocent in the courtroom, in the name of justice, the court handed down entirely undeserved sentences. Of course, these unjust sentences are being celebrated in Serbia and Belgrade,” Berisha said.

He said that no ruling could diminish the liberation war waged by the people of Kosovo under their leadership, which he described as the brightest chapter in the Albanian struggle for freedom and national dignity since Skanderbeg’s wars.

“The Kosovo Liberation Army waged a war through which, together with NATO and with its support, as NATO’s ally on the ground, it liberated Kosovo, the last colony in Europe, from the barbaric Serbian occupation,” Berisha said.