Kosovo’s Assembly recently approved the bill amending the Law on the Special Court. The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) opposed the initiative and did not take part in the vote.
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This position caused clashes within the party and also led to the resignations of several officials. Xhafer Gashi stepped down from his positions as a member of the General Council, a member of the Presidency and head of the LDK branch in Obiliq. Meanwhile, assembly members Labinot Mirena and Vlora Mjekiqi Kabashi declared that they would continue their mandates in the Obiliq Municipal Assembly as independents.
A day after the vote, LDK leader Lumir Abdixhiku responded on Facebook. He said that citizens had been given false expectations about the legal consequences that the proposed changes could bring.
Abdixhiku justified the LDK’s decision by recalling that the party had previously warned about the bill’s possible legal effects. He also rejected accusations that the LDK had positioned itself against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), saying that the public had been presented with expectations that the law could not guarantee.
According to him, the LDK’s position would have been better understood if, instead of attacking and labeling the party as an opponent of the KLA, its arguments had been heard. Abdixhiku wrote that narrow party interests had replaced the national effort and that, in a climate where no one dares to tell the truth, reason is attacked amid accusations of treason and feigned patriotism.
Zogaj: The LDK has strayed from Rugova’s path
Skender Zogaj, one of the LDK’s founders, strongly criticized recent developments within the party in an interview with the newspaper “Bota sot.” According to him, the LDK has moved away from the political and ideological orientation of its founder, Ibrahim Rugova.
Zogaj stressed that, although he is an LDK founder and activist, this affiliation obliges him to speak openly even when his views are not welcomed by fellow party members.
He assessed that over the past 15 years, the LDK has undergone a continuous process of degradation, moving absurdly far from Ibrahim Rugova’s vision. According to him, the paths described as “New Roads” have in fact turned into “dead ends.”
Zogaj described both the party’s recent statements and its actions as unacceptable, saying they would have been unworthy even of the LDK’s most rural sub-branches. He described the situation as one of profound political and organizational confusion, which has led to disagreements, dissatisfaction, disappointment and the resignations of officials who do not agree with the situation.
He also criticized the LDK’s maneuvering with the Self-Determination Movement (LVV) over the election of the president, which ended without results.
According to Zogaj, the LDK leader’s assertion that a judgment cannot be overturned through a vote in the Assembly is legally sound. However, he said that this argument does not exclude the party’s political responsibility, particularly after its contacts and secret moves with the LVV over the election of the president.
Zogaj stated that those efforts were initially presented as serious but ended in a failure that had also been predicted by some voices within the LDK.
Regarding the Special Court, he said that the LDK had failed to formulate a clear and convincing position. According to him, the party had demonstrated neither historical responsibility, nor political integrity, nor a sufficient connection to the principles of Rugova’s cause.
Zogaj assessed that such shortcomings cannot be covered up with legal explanations or belated statements, since responsibility is also linked to actions and inactions to date.
He added that, although the initiative to amend the law came from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the LDK should have taken a firm position and assumed political responsibility instead of avoiding decision-making.
According to him, not taking part in the vote was a political mistake and could not be justified. Zogaj said that responsibility for the initiative lay with the PDK, while the LDK should not have hidden behind hesitation or narrow party calculations.
He described the failure to vote as an attempt to derive political benefit from the situation, but stressed that the result was the opposite: a failure that deepened the crisis of confidence and moved the LDK even further away from Ibrahim Rugova’s legacy.
Dajaku defends Abdixhiku’s and the LDK’s position
Xhevat Dajaku, the brother of Besim Dajaku, a former bodyguard of President Rugova, came out in defense of Lumir Abdixhiku’s position on the Special Court’s judgment. In an interview with “Bota sot,” he said that the LDK had long faced political attacks and false narratives.
Dajaku said that the LDK’s fundamental goal since its founding had been to create an independent, democratic and open Kosovo, with a Euro-Atlantic orientation and friendly relations with the Euro-Atlantic world.
According to him, the responsibility, prudence, care, opportunities and various developments throughout this journey have often turned the LDK into a target of attacks by people who did not possess these values. He claimed that the actions of its opponents went as far as the brink of fratricide.
Dajaku stated that many LDK figures and institutionalists were killed, while the people who, according to him, incited or ordered those killings were never punished.
Speaking about the postwar period, he said that the political climate was characterized by intolerance and by the actions of opponents who sought power at any cost. According to him, money stolen from the homeland, as well as the Three Percent Fund, was used in this process to pay people involved in crimes and eliminate political opponents.
He claimed that fear and insecurity were present everywhere, while LDK supporters were attacked, blackmailed, threatened, beaten and killed.
Dajaku also mentioned the theft of evidence and testimony from high-security rooms in Pristina. According to him, this showed that organized crime had infiltrated important institutions.
He stated that, for this reason, the international community, led by the United States of America and in cooperation with Kosovo’s institutions, established the Specialist Chambers, based in The Hague.
Speaking about its mandate, Dajaku stressed that the Specialist Chambers are an institution of Kosovo and an independent court tasked with investigating and adjudicating alleged crimes committed during the war.
He said it would have been fair for the Serbian hierarchy responsible for alleged crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, arson, mass killings and mass rape, to also have been brought before the court.
According to Dajaku, such an inclusion would appear absurd in the circumstances of a trial in which all the accused would have had the same victims: Albanians. He asked why there had been no protests when the key was handed over to the Institute for Research and Compilation of Facts concerning genocide, crimes against humanity, rape, expulsions and the burning of 45 percent of Kosovo.
Dajaku also said there had been no protests over the postwar killings.
Regarding Abdixhiku’s position, he stated that the LDK leader had been right in legal, moral and political terms in his response on social media concerning the judgment.
He claimed that the LDK had long been prejudged by leftist elements and that many of its important figures had been killed. According to him, the party continues to be attacked whenever the opportunity arises.
Dajaku described the latest case as another attack built on a false narrative, aimed at protecting individuals who, directly or indirectly, had a role in crimes committed against their compatriots, primarily Albanians, as also reflected in the Special Court’s verdict.
Regarding the resignations of several LDK members, he said he viewed them primarily as actions motivated by personal interests and career considerations.
In conclusion, Dajaku stated that the LDK had been seriously damaged by numerous factors, but had suffered its greatest blow from within, because of the sabotage by certain individuals in the past and the involvement of undeserving people who later became influential figures within the party.
