Konjufca: Conviction of former KLA leaders met with deep disappointment in Kosovo

Glauk Konjufca, first deputy prime minister and minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, said the convictions of Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi have caused deep disappointment in Kosovo, a feeling he said he shares.

This is the second time Konjufca has responded since the Kosovo Specialist Chambers found the four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army guilty of war crimes related to unlawful or arbitrary arrest and detention, cruel treatment, torture and unlawful killing.

Under the sentences handed down, Thaçi and Krasniqi were each sentenced to 25 years in prison, Veseli to 18 years and Selimi to 13 years.

Konjufca said he was confident that the first-instance ruling would be analyzed rigorously and carefully by the Appeals Chamber.

In a post on the X platform, carried by KosovaPress, he wrote that he firmly believes the judgment will undergo thorough judicial review on appeal and that the factual and legal shortcomings arising from the decision will be addressed in accordance with applicable law and established case law.

However, he emphasized that Kosovo remains equally committed to the rule of law, democratic values, peace and its European perspective.

Referring to the country’s past, Konjufca said Kosovo’s history has been marked by repression, resistance, war and loss, but also by freedom achieved through numerous sacrifices.

He said that, under the current circumstances, it is difficult to see any sense of justice for the tens of thousands of women, men and children killed, raped and tortured by Serbian military, paramilitary and police forces. Konjufca emphasized that more than 95 percent of them were ethnic Albanians and that justice was never served for them.

At the same time, he called for the historical truth to be preserved in the face of any attempt to distort or maliciously reinterpret it.

Concluding his response, Konjufca said that, above all, pride in the dignity and resilience of the people of Kosovo must be preserved, as must pride in the state built today: a free, democratic and European Kosovo.