Gucati: EU signaling KLA leaders will be convicted, then acquitted on appeal

President of the KLA War Veterans Organization Hysni Gucati assessed that statements by foreign ambassadors and the European Union that the proceedings against the four former KLA leaders would not end with the first-instance judgment on September 16 effectively meant that they could be convicted at first instance and subsequently acquitted on appeal.

Gucati wrote on Facebook that many foreign ambassadors, as well as the EU yesterday, in an attempt to ease public discontent regarding the Specialist Chambers, had been saying: “It does not all end on September 16, because the parties have the right to appeal.”

“The only thing they are not saying directly is: ‘Do not prevent us from convicting them once, because we will find them innocent on appeal.’ This is a dirty political game involving judicial instances. From the very beginning, the Specialist Chambers have reported to diplomats because they established and supported them. They have never operated as an independent judicial institution,” Gucati said.

Gucati stated that the Specialist Chambers appeared to have been more concerned with the positions of diplomatic missions than with the findings of international organizations regarding human rights violations that had occurred in Kosovo.

“For almost six years, this court has produced nothing but a narrative that has served Serbia. It has processed and rehabilitated every Serbian claim. Despite the lack of credibility of Serbian witnesses, it accepted them as witnesses. Despite the inconsistencies in their testimony, Serbian claims were treated as material for trial. Therefore, the desire of certain ambassadors may still be for the Specialist Chambers to continue serving Serbia through a first-instance decision, only to correct it later on appeal, as they are now seemingly trying to tell us. However, an unjust first-instance decision is not nullified by an acquittal at second instance,” Gucati said.

According to him, the damage to Kosovo would occur on the very day of such a judgment, while Serbia would immediately make use of the decision rather than wait for the appeal proceedings.

“It would immediately use such a decision at the UN, in diplomacy, in its campaign for countries to withdraw their recognition of Kosovo, and in its efforts to delegitimize Kosovo as a state. The consequences within Kosovo would also be enormous. If a court links Kosovo’s liberation war to organized crime, the damage will not remain confined to a courtroom in The Hague. From that courtroom, the KLA’s war would be criminalized before the entire world. Along with it, the legitimacy of Kosovo’s liberation, NATO’s intervention and the very statehood of the Republic of Kosovo would also be called into question,” Gucati stressed.

He recalled that the signature of the KLA’s political representative at Rambouillet had been crucial to NATO’s intervention and that the North Atlantic Alliance had coordinated the bombing of Serbian targets in coordination with the four former KLA leaders now on trial in The Hague.

“Therefore, a narrative that criminalizes the KLA’s war does not concern only the past. It also affects the political and moral foundations on which the state of Kosovo was built. It also affects Kosovo’s multiethnic character, in which the international community has invested since 1999. In the event of an unjust decision, the Specialist Chambers would give Serbia new diplomatic ammunition. An unjust decision criminalizing our war, at a time when Serbia continues to deny its own crimes and glorify the state apparatus that committed them, does not bring peace. It creates new wounds. It creates tensions. It creates new conflict,” Gucati said.

He stressed that KLA veterans were appealing to the EU and foreign ambassadors “not to conduct politics through the Specialist Chambers’ decision on September 16.”

“Do not play with our wounds any longer! Do not make this mistake! For 27 years, the international community has invested in telling us about peace, reconciliation and coexistence. It must therefore understand that peace cannot be built by humiliating justice. Reconciliation cannot be built by criminalizing the victim. An unjust decision does not bring peace, but conflict. Do not play with our wounds any longer! Do not make this mistake!” Gucati wrote.

The European Union has called on all parties to respect the judgment of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague concerning the four former KLA leaders, according to a response from Brussels to Gazeta Express, which also stated that the work of the Chambers was important for promoting accountability and acknowledging the experiences of victims and their families from all communities in Kosovo.

The four former KLA leaders are awaiting a first-instance judgment in The Hague on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. They have been in detention since 2020, and the Prosecution has requested a sentence of 45 years’ imprisonment for each of them.