With 99 votes, members of the Kosovo Assembly adopted a declaration expressing concern over the first-instance judgment against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.
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The text calls the conclusion that the four defendants shared a common criminal purpose unacceptable. It also calls on the Specialist Chambers to remain within their mandate and says that the Joint Criminal Enterprise to expel Albanians from Kosovo was carried out through the Yugoslav and Serbian state, military and police apparatus.
Assembly Speaker Albulena Haxhiu read the seven-point declaration to lawmakers. It includes a call for state institutions to act to defend the truth about the war of liberation.
“It calls on all state institutions of the Republic of Kosovo to take all necessary steps to defend the truth and the integrity of the Kosovo people’s war of liberation. The Assembly calls for the drafting of a joint state strategy to coordinate legal, institutional and diplomatic actions to defend and affirm the full historical truth about the just war for Kosovo’s freedom and liberation,” the text read by Haxhiu says.
All parliamentary groups supported the declaration, including lawmakers from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). Over the years, the party has called for the postwar killings to be solved; most of the victims were its members.
The LDK had not issued an official position on the Specialist Chambers’ judgment. After Monday’s vote, lawmaker Jehona Lushaku-Sadriu said she appreciated that the parties’ comments had been included in the declaration.
“We want to help ensure that Kosovo is an independent and free state, with functioning independent institutions. It is important that we fulfill our duty,” she said.
Maraj: 99 votes for the declaration, compared with 82 for establishing the Specialist Chambers
Political analyst Milazim Maraj told “Bota sot” that he considered the declaration politically damaging for Kosovo. He questioned the change in lawmakers’ positions, comparing the latest vote with the earlier decision to establish the Specialist Chambers.
Maraj noted that the declaration received 99 votes, while the establishment of the Specialist Chambers had been approved by 82 members of the Kosovo Assembly.
“The Kosovo Parliament’s declaration was voted for by 99 lawmakers. Eighty-two lawmakers from the same parliament voted to establish this court. Back then, it was said that anyone who did not vote for the court was against Kosovo. Now it is said that those who do not join protests against this court’s decision are traitors, UDB agents and so on. Now it is said that this court was established at Serbia’s request. But why did the Kosovo Parliament vote for Serbia’s request? It was even voted through at the strong insistence of those who are now even more forcefully demanding that we annul this decision,” Maraj told “Bota sot.”
According to him, the difference between the positions taken then and those taken today raises questions about what brought about the change.
“What are we supposed to believe? Have we only just woken up? Or is this perhaps another request from Serbia, aimed at putting Kosovo at odds with its own decisions and those of the court? This declaration has no legal force, but it has a negative political effect for Kosovo. This shows Kosovo’s resolve and its capacity as a state to make and defend wise and just decisions for Kosovo. It shows the legal strength of the rule of law,” he said.
Maraj placed the vote in the context of the possibility that Kosovo could hold early elections. He said that, in his view, lawmakers avoided confronting street-level propaganda during the pre-election period, despite having previously defended different positions.
“Now, while it is still unclear whether we will go to early elections, which have begun to become commonplace in Kosovo, lawmakers chose silence to escape street-level propaganda in this pre-election period. They voted against what they had affirmed and defended for years. Lawmakers are now declaring their positions and competing to be the first to sign for the abolition of this court. What is this?” he said.
He also criticized what he saw as a lack of explanation of lawmakers’ role in the process of creating the court.
“If they were teenagers at a protest, they could be excused to some extent, but not our elected representatives, some of them even doctoral students in various fields! They are not saying which of them were behind the proposal to establish this court, whose decisions they now disagree with,” Maraj said.
He described the declaration’s approval as evidence that lawmakers had united on this issue, while claiming that the same unity is lacking when it comes to making institutions functional.
“The declaration shows that, when it came to establishing Kosovo’s institutions and electing the President, not even the lawmakers of a single party were united, whereas now they all come together to approve a declaration with no legal force that harms foreign policy. All these lawmakers know that their approved declaration has no legal effect. What is their aim, or what are they afraid of, that they are now scrambling in the streets and in the Assembly to avoid accepting what they themselves chose?” he said.
Maraj also questioned what interests, in his view, are guiding lawmakers’ positions.
“What is even stranger now is the unity of 99 lawmakers behind this rather insignificant declaration, when they cannot unite to establish Kosovo’s institutions. Whose interests are these lawmakers serving? Are they serving the interests of Kosovo and the citizens who voted for them, or are they beholden to street politics?” he said.
He argued that the judgment should be challenged through legal means, with arguments presented at later stages of the proceedings.
“Our allies have accepted the decision of the Kosovo court in The Hague. Should we now turn against them too and tell them that we were wrong then and have only now remembered? Why are they not working on appeals supported by arguments that may not have been presented during the trial, so that the Court of Appeals can serve as a legal means of correcting the decision? Instead, we are putting on this spectacle, which does very little to advance the goal they invoke,” he said.
Maraj also expressed reservations about the wording calling on the Specialist Chambers to respect their mandate in accordance with the will of the Kosovo Assembly.
“One of the proposed points says that the Specialist Chambers should respect their mandate in accordance with the will of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo. What court operates on the basis of someone’s will? A court acts on the basis of evidence. It is not that they do not know this; they are doing it to justify themselves, to say, ‘Look, we did everything we could, but those in power are not listening to us,’” he said.
In conclusion, Maraj said this approach brings no benefit to the defendants in The Hague or to the country.
“Playing this role, sometimes on the side of the victim and sometimes on the side of the crime, while justifying themselves to protesters, has no positive effect either for those in The Hague or for the country. With this declaration, this Assembly did nothing to justify its existence; instead, it justified early elections,” Milazim Maraj concluded in his comments to “Bota sot.”
Gashi: LDK’s vote does not mean forgetting the victims
Political analyst Eduard Gashi described the vote as an important political message, stressing that the LDK’s support for the declaration should not be interpreted as abandoning its demand to solve the postwar killings.
“The vote is an important political signal, including to the international community. The Assembly is saying that Kosovo will defend the truth of the war of liberation and the dignity of its state with legal, historical and diplomatic arguments. At the same time, we must be precise: the declaration expresses the Assembly’s position, while the judgment is reviewed and challenged through judicial procedures. For the LDK, this is a particularly sensitive issue. The postwar killings of its members are a wound that demands truth and justice. The vote for the declaration should not be understood as forgetting those victims. On the contrary, it can convey a more mature message: we can defend the truth about Kosovo’s war and, with the same determination, demand that the postwar killings be solved. We owe the victims’ families answers, not silence,” Gashi said.
Asked by “Bota sot” whether the vote marks a shift in the LDK’s position, Gashi said it was too early to call a single vote a definitive change. According to him, the party can seek a fair trial in The Hague for former KLA members while continuing to demand justice for its members who were killed.
“I would be cautious about calling it a definitive change on the basis of one vote. But I see it as an opportunity for a more statesmanlike approach. The LDK can support former KLA members’ right to a fair trial in The Hague without giving up its demand for justice for its members who were killed. Political maturity is measured precisely by the ability to uphold both of these responsibilities,” the analyst said.
Gashi said the vote showed a shared institutional position, insofar as the parties had united around the declaration’s content. He added that this unity should be followed by concrete action.
“Yes, the vote shows a shared institutional position despite political differences, insofar as the parties united around the content of the declaration. This unity has value if it turns into serious institutional work. Kosovo needs to pursue two parallel paths: defending the state and its historical truth before international partners, and solving every crime, including the postwar killings. One does not exclude the other. Ibrahim Rugova posed the question: ‘What good can we do for Kosovo today?’ In this case, the answer is to safeguard the processes, seek justice for every victim and act responsibly toward the state we have built. The rule of law advances through evidence and institutions, not through blind ideologies or personal convictions,” Gashi concluded.
