PRISTINA, Sept 16 /ATA/ Kosovo’s Assembly Speaker Albulena Haxhiu has reacted to today’s ruling of the Specialist Chambers against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi, describing the verdicts and sentences as a ‘serious blow’ to the families of those convicted and as a sombre moment for Kosovo and the Albanian nation.
“Today’s judgment and the sentences imposed on Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi represent a severe blow to their families, a profoundly distressing development for the Republic of Kosovo, and a sombre moment for the Albanian nation wherever it resides,” Haxhiu wrote.
She stressed that the decision must be viewed in the context of Kosovo’s history and the violence inflicted by the Serbian regime against Albanians.
“Kosovo has endured the violence of a state apparatus that killed civilians, carried out massacres, expelled hundreds of thousands of Albanians from their homes and left behind thousands dead and missing. This experience is an indelible part of the memory of Kosovo and of the Albanian nation,” she declared.
The Speaker of the Assembly expressed solidarity with the families of Thaçi, Veseli, Krasniqi and Selimi, noting that for years they have borne the burden of absence, waiting and uncertainty.
“To them I send a message from Kosovo: Be strong, Kosovo stands with you. The final legal word has not yet been spoken. The right of appeal is part of the process and must be exercised in full,” Haxhiu wrote.
She defended the character of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s war, stating that no judgment can alter, in her view, its nature.
“The Kosovo Liberation Army’s war was a war of liberation. It emerged in the face of oppression, violence and crimes committed by the Serbian regime against the people of Kosovo. No judgment can alter the nature of that war or erase a people’s right to fight for their freedom,” she underlined.
“Respect for justice does not mean remaining silent in the face of attempts to distort history. Today’s convictions must not be allowed to be used to relativise the crimes of the Serbian regime, to diminish accountability for them, or to construct a false narrative,” the Speaker of the Assembly wrote.
In conclusion, she called for calm, dignity and unity, saying that Kosovo will withstand this trial by remaining faithful to justice, freedom and what she described as its truth.
“Judgments cannot determine the history of a people, nor can they rewrite it,” Haxhiu concluded.
/Kosovapress/sm/
