Mass protests and even an attack on the EU representation’s office in Prishtina – these were among the consequences of the verdict handed down against four former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The most prominent of them is Hashim Thaçi, the former president of Kosovo, which is only partially recognised internationally.
The verdict has effectively undermined stability across the Western Balkans.
For a significant, if not outright majority, of Kosovo’s citizens, the defendants are national heroes and fighters for independence.
Read more about the details of the verdict and its potential consequences in the article by Yurii Panchenko and Volodymyr Tsybulnyk: 25 years for the former president: why the Hague verdict against Kosovo’s leader could destabilise the Balkans.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague found Hashim Thaçi, Kosovo’s former president and its first-ever prime minister, guilty of cruel treatment of prisoners and civilians, torture and murder, sentencing him to 25 years in prison.
A similar sentence was handed down to former KLA spokesperson Jakup Krasniqi, who later served as speaker of parliament and acting president. Kadri Veseli, another former speaker of parliament and former head of Kosovo’s Intelligence Agency, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, while one of the KLA commanders, Rexhep Selimi, received a 13-year sentence.
According to presiding judge Charles Smith, “the court concluded that the accused bear individual criminal responsibility through a joint criminal enterprise for arbitrary deprivation of liberty, cruel treatment, torture, and murder committed against hundreds of victims between 1998 and 1999.”
Although the current verdict does not concern the legitimacy of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the judgment states that the KLA’s key strategy was to eliminate or neutralise individuals it identified as obstacles to Kosovo’s independence.
The conviction of a leader who organised the defence of Kosovo against occupiers responsible for genocide appears particularly controversial in light of recent events.
One such event was the state funeral held in Belgrade shortly before the verdict, conducted with full military honours for General Ratko Mladić, the Butcher of Bosnia and an organiser of mass killings and the genocide of Muslims.
In this context, the verdict appears particularly unjust to Kosovo’s citizens. Kosovars have seemingly forgotten all their previous grievances against Hashim Thaçi. Before travelling to The Hague, he was known as a corrupt politician with authoritarian tendencies. Now, a huge banner hangs in the centre of Kosovo’s capital reading: “In the name of the people, they have been declared innocent”.
A mass rally in Prishtina, attended by thousands and featuring slogans such as Bring the liberators home and Kosovo is waiting for its heroes, began even before the verdict was announced. After the ruling, protesters became considerably more aggressive. Stones were thrown at the buildings of the EU representation and the government, forcing police to use crowd-control measures.
The verdict was also met with mixed reactions in Serbia, where some believe it fails to cover all crimes committed against Serbs.
Whatever the case, tensions in the region have increased.
KFOR peacekeeping forces stationed in Kosovo deployed additional security personnel to areas inhabited by ethnic Serbs. Meanwhile, the EU and the United States have already urged their citizens to avoid travelling to Kosovo.
An armed confrontation is unlikely to occur. However, the “war” will move into the legal sphere, with the parties expected to appeal the verdict, as neither side is satisfied with the ruling and both intend to challenge it.
It is also clear that the resumption of talks on normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia should not be expected anytime soon.
At the same time, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has received a welcome gift ahead of the parliamentary elections.
“If Thaçi is found guilty… then – not only in Moscow and Belgrade – the claim will resurface that NATO cooperated with a war criminal during the bombing of Serbia in 1999,” the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) wrote in the run-up to the verdict.
That argument, however, ignores the suffering of Kosovars. Around 13,000 civilians were killed or went missing during the Kosovo wars, while approximately one million people were driven from their homes by the Yugoslav army. Ultimately, this was what prompted NATO’s intervention.
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