Besa Gaxherri after the conviction of former KLA leaders: I remained silent to avoid influencing the proceedings

Former LDK MP Besa Gaxherri has responded to the decision by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague concerning the former KLA leaders.

She explained that since the arrest of four senior officials of the Republic of Kosovo, including the president, the speaker of parliament and the parliamentary group leader, she had chosen not to comment out of respect for justice and to avoid complicating the judicial proceedings.

Gaxherri stressed that the court’s ruling is not final, as the case may be taken to appeal. She acknowledged that she was dismayed by the convictions, even though she had been a staunch political opponent of those convicted.

The former MP said she does not want to become part of the emotional reactions or play a pathetic role amid the atmosphere of public euphoria, in which various public figures appear on television programs or at protests, crying and speaking about their pain.

According to her, remaining calm is essential to prevent a return to the era of clashes, attacks, accusations and killings among Albanians, a period that, as she put it, the LDK experienced and bore on its shoulders.

Gaxherri also criticized those who accuse her personally or the LDK, saying that such positions are doing more harm to those who have been convicted. She urged them to remain silent if their aim is to defend these people and not to implicate her in their accusations.

She stated that she respects the process, but at the same time stands by everything she has courageously said over more than three decades.

“I was KLA,” Gaxherri said, adding that the LDK mobilized the people for a decade, prepared them for war and organized the war.

According to her, when the war in Kosovo began, more than 90% of the population belonged to the LDK, while it was the people who fought the war.

Gaxherri said she personally lived through the events of that period and that no one can deny her the truth. In conclusion, she called for efforts to save whatever can be saved from this process without reopening anyone’s wounds, because no one can silence them or deny them the right to defend themselves.