Xhymshiti responds to Endrit Thaçi’s appeal: Who will return the 96 victims to their families?

Endrit Thaçi’s appeal to political parties to unite in support of legal changes aimed at creating the possibility for former President Hashim Thaçi and other former KLA leaders to be released has triggered strong reactions.

Journalist and publicist Vudi Xhymshiti opposed this position, shifting the focus to the families of the victims of the war and the consequences of the decision by the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, reports “Bota sot.”

“Endrit Thaçi, before asking parties to unite for your father, stop by a family that still keeps a photograph of their murdered loved one on the wall. Ask them who is uniting for them and who will return their loved one to them. Go to the family of Behajdin Allaqi, Endrit.

You are asking for your father to return home, but there are children who grew up without ever having that opportunity. There are women who waited for their husbands and mothers who waited for their sons. There are children who came to know death before they understood life. For these people, there were no legal changes and no united parties; all that remained was an empty place in the home and a grave.

The court found criminal responsibility for 385 arbitrary detentions, 49 victims of cruel treatment, 303 victims of torture and 96 victims of murder. Hashim Thaçi was sentenced to 25 years in prison. The court also determined that he and his co-accused had made a significant contribution to the common criminal purpose of targeting perceived opponents.

Therefore, Endrit, do not present your pain to the victims’ families as though it were greater than theirs. Your father is alive: you can hear him, visit him, write to him and embrace him when you are allowed to do so. Your father’s victims have been left with a stone, a photograph, a name and an absence.

You have the right to love your father. But when you call for political intervention to free him from the consequences of a judgment for torture and murder, you cannot at the same time ask Kosovo to close its eyes to the victims.

Before calling on parties to unite, go to the victims’ families and listen to them, especially the family of Behajdin Allaqi. Because the question is not only about when Hashim Thaçi will return to his son.

The question that remains is: who will return the 96 murdered people to their families?