Students Protest Outside EU Office, Call for Release of Former KLA Leaders and Justice Free from Political Interference

Representatives of student parliaments from Kosovo’s public universities, including students of Albanian and North Macedonian origin, objected to the way the judicial process against former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is being conducted in The Hague, KosovaPress reports.

During the event organized outside the Office of the European Union in Kosovo, the students called for the release of the former KLA leaders.

In a joint statement addressed to EU representatives, they called for decisions concerning the former KLA leaders to be free from any political influence.

Endi Binaku, a representative of students from the University of Pristina “Hasan Prishtina,” said they would not accept the war for Kosovo’s liberation being portrayed through a criminalizing narrative.

According to Binaku, students will not remain silent, nor will they allow their history to be rewritten or the struggle for freedom to be reduced to a criminalizing story. He stressed that his generation had inherited this freedom and would defend the truth about it at all costs. Binaku called for justice to apply the same standard to Kosovo that it uses for Serbia. He added that Kosovo’s young people want their voice to be heard, their concerns to be taken seriously, and the standards of justice to apply equally to everyone. He also called for a Europe that treats Kosovo according to the same criteria it expects from Kosovo.

Riad Bislimaj, from “Ukshin Hoti” University in Prizren, said students consider it their responsibility not to remain indifferent in the face of this process.

Bislimaj said they belong to the generation that inherited a free Kosovo. Although many of them did not directly experience the war period, he said they are aware that the freedom they enjoy today was not achieved by itself. For this reason, while the history and the people who were part of it remain at the center of an international trial, students feel obliged not to remain indifferent.

Florian Thaçi, a representative from “Haxhi Zeka” University in Peja, meanwhile said students were outraged by the prolonged duration of the trial.

Thaçi said that through this activity they were openly expressing their dissatisfaction with such a lengthy process and calling for the release of the KLA leaders. He added that on September 16 they expect Kosovo’s state-builders to be released and return home, to their families and their people.

In conclusion, the students reiterated that justice must be applied fairly and equally to everyone, while calling for the trial of the former KLA leaders to be concluded without political influence.