OVL-KLA: International actors must not politically interfere in the September 16 decision in The Hague

The Organization of War Veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army has expressed concern that international representatives may be preparing public opinion for a first-instance conviction of four former KLA leaders on September 16, with the possibility that they could be acquitted on appeal.

Hysni Gucati, chairman of the OVL-KLA, published on Facebook an appeal by veterans addressed to the European Union and foreign ambassadors.

According to him, the indirect message being conveyed is: “Do not stop us from convicting them once, because we will acquit them on appeal.”

Gucati stressed that the veterans are calling on the EU and diplomatic representatives not to use politically the decision expected to be handed down on September 16 by the Specialist Court.

Full statement:

An appeal by KLA veterans addressed to the European Union and foreign ambassadors

Yesterday, as did the EU, a number of foreign ambassadors stated that the process would not end on September 16, since the parties would have the opportunity to appeal. According to them, these statements are intended to ease citizens’ dissatisfaction with the Specialist Court.

However, what is not being said openly is that they could first be convicted and then acquitted at the second instance.

According to the veterans, such an approach constitutes an unacceptable intertwining of politics with the judicial process.

Since its establishment, the Specialist Court has been linked to diplomats, as it was founded and supported by them. For this reason, it has never been perceived as a fully independent judicial body.

In many cases, the court has appeared more attentive to the positions of diplomatic missions than to the findings of international organizations regarding human rights violations that have occurred at this institution.

For nearly six years, according to the OVL-KLA, this court has built a narrative that has served Serbia.

It has addressed and brought renewed attention to claims made by Belgrade. Although Serbian witnesses have been assessed as unreliable and their testimony as inconsistent, they have been allowed to testify, and their claims have been used in judicial proceedings.

For this reason, some ambassadors may want the Specialist Court to give Serbia a favorable decision at first instance, which would later be corrected on appeal, as is being alleged. But an initially unjust decision cannot be fully undone solely through an acquittal at second instance.

The damage to Kosovo would be caused on the day of the first decision. That same day would also influence the way history is written, while Serbia would immediately exploit the development.

Belgrade would not wait for the appeal to conclude. It would immediately use such a decision at the United Nations, in diplomacy, in its campaign to persuade countries to revoke recognition of Kosovo, and in efforts to portray Kosovo as a state without legitimacy.

The consequences would not be limited to the international arena; they would also be serious within Kosovo.

If Kosovo’s liberation war were linked by a court to organized crime, the consequences would not remain inside the courtroom in The Hague. The criminalization of the KLA’s war would spread around the world from that process.

Along with the KLA’s war, the legitimacy of Kosovo’s liberation, NATO’s intervention, and the very statehood of the Republic of Kosovo would also be called into question.

The signing of the KLA’s political representative at Rambouillet was decisive for NATO’s intervention. In coordination with the four former KLA leaders currently on trial in The Hague, the North Atlantic Alliance also organized bombings against various Serbian targets.

Therefore, any narrative that portrays the KLA’s war as criminal is not only about the past. It also affects the political and moral foundations on which the state of Kosovo was built.

Such an approach also undermines Kosovo’s multiethnic character, in which the international community has invested since 1999.

Should an unjust decision be handed down, the Specialist Court would provide Serbia with another tool to use in diplomacy.

A decision that criminalizes Kosovo’s war, while Serbia continues to deny the crimes it committed and praise the state apparatus responsible for them, would not bring peace.

Such a decision would open new wounds, increase tensions, and create the conditions for a new conflict.

For 27 years, the international community has invested in messages of peace, reconciliation, and coexistence. For this reason, it must understand that justice cannot serve as a basis for its humiliation.

Reconciliation cannot be achieved by treating the victim as a criminal party.

Likewise, stability is not protected by reopening the wounds of the people of Kosovo.

Justice cannot be viewed as a process with several levels in which the damage caused at the first stage is considered forgotten after the final decision.

The international community has disappointed Kosovo’s trust because, according to the veterans, it has changed the Specialist Court’s original mission and purpose.

It must not further endanger what remains of the trust between it and the people of Kosovo.

An unjust decision would not bring peace, but would create the conditions for conflict.

Anyone treating this issue today as a game with limited consequences will not be able to claim tomorrow that they were unaware of what they were causing.

Justice must be fair from the outset, rather than corrected only at the conclusion of the process.

For this reason, the appeal by KLA veterans to the EU and foreign ambassadors is not to use politically the September 16 decision at the Specialist Court.

Do not further deepen the wounds of our people, and do not make this mistake.

Hysni Gucati, chairman of the OVL-KLA