The Albanian-American organization Albanians for America has reacted to the Hague Special Court’s ruling on former Kosova Liberation Army leaders, saying it disagrees with the judgment and considers it unfair to those who fought for Kosova’s freedom.
The organization said the KLA fought for freedom and to protect Kosova’s population. It said the group emerged under what it described as a repressive and violent Serbian regime, when Kosova Albanians faced killings, expulsions, destruction and serious crimes.
AFA said the ruling should not become a judgment of what it described as a people’s struggle for freedom. It also said the judgment should not create a historical or moral equivalence between Kosovo’s liberation war and the Serbian state apparatus, which it said used violence and committed crimes against civilians. AFA described Serbia as the aggressor and Kosova as the victim, adding that Kosova was not the aggressor in the 1998–1999 war but a people fighting to survive and gain freedom from repression.
The organization added that the judgment is not the final legal word. It is a first-instance ruling, and under the procedures of the Specialist Chambers, the parties have the right to appeal before the Appeals Panel. The judicial process has therefore not yet ended.
Albanians for America said it would continue to defend what it described as the historical truth of the Kosova war, the right of the Albanian people to freedom and dignity, and the strategic partnership between Kosova and the United States. It said the KLA fought for Kosova’s freedom and that Kosova’s freedom is the right of its people and cannot be put on trial.
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