PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo war veterans held a protest Thursday against a European Union-backed court prosecuting their former fighters who waged the 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia, claiming the tribunal is biased and unjust.
Thousands gathered in Kosovo’s capital of Pristina, at the main Scanderbeg Square, to chant in support of arrested former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA — a Kosovo Albanian guerrilla group that led the pro-independence fight.
The protest was organized by the veterans association known as OVL-UCK under the motto: “Together against injustice. KLA is glory, not indictment. Today KLA, tomorrow our whole history.”
No violence was reported.
“They are heroes,” read one poster, with the names of the four KLA leaders facing trial at the EU-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers court, based in The Hague, Netherlands.
“The special court is deforming our history, it is showing injustice toward those who fought for human freedom and dignity,” said Hysni Gucati, head of the veterans’ organization.
Since 2020, four top KLA leaders have been in custody by the court — Kosovo’s former President Hashim Thaci, former Parliament Speakers Kadri Veseli and Jakup Krasniqi, and ex-lawmaker Rexhep Selimi. They face charges that include murder, torture and persecution of civilians during and after the war.
The court and an associated prosecutor’s office were created after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, that included allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. The organ harvesting allegations haven’t been included in indictments issued by the court.
Two other former KLA members have already been sentenced by The Hague court, including Pjetër Shala. Also, Gucati, and another official of the organization have been convicted by the court in the Netherlands of witness intimidation and obstructing justice.
Some 11,400 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, died during the war, before a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbia to pull its troops out of Kosovo and to cede control of its former province to the United Nations and NATO.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, which was recognized by the United States and most of the West, but not by Serbia or its allies Russia and China. Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia remain high.
