Pasic: Kurti’s stance toward the KLA leaders in The Hague is a performance for the public and the electorate

The move by Kosovo’s caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti to reveal the content of the letter he sent back in 2022 to the President of the Specialist Chambers, Ekaterina Trendafilova, regarding the KLA leaders who are on trial in The Hague, has been assessed by lawyer and former military prosecutor Dragan Pasic as a performance for the public.

“As is well known, Albin Kurti, the prime minister of the so-called Republic of Kosovo, is in a political problem because he still cannot form a government and is serving as a caretaker prime minister. The reasons are political and national in nature. His political opponents are Hashim Thaci, Jakup Krasniqi, and Kadri Veseli. However, Kurti’s attitude is different when it comes to Rexhep Selimi, who was the head of the Self-Determination Movement and an active MP from 2010 in the Kosovo Assembly. Referring to him, he says that ‘the tenth one in The Hague is suffering’, because he treats him as the tenth Hague indictee,” Pasic told Kosovo Online.

As he pointed out, the reasons are political and national in nature.

“Albin Kurti was not consistently active when it came to helping the so-called government of the Republic of Kosovo support the KLA leaders in The Hague, even though he had promised to do so. So this concerns his relationship with the electorate and that is the reason for this kind of behavior from Kurti,” he emphasized.

Pasic believes that Kurti reacted solely under public pressure and that the KLA leaders will still not be on his agenda in the future.

“The command structure of the so-called KLA consists of Kurti’s political opponents and they are not his priority. This is being done because of the public, but also due to pressure from other countries, for example Albania. So this is his forced behavior, not voluntary. He acts very rationally in political terms. Although he harbors political animosity toward Hashim Thaci and the other accused, when it comes to the public he expresses so-called solidarity and refers to the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army as clean and just, even progressive,” Pasic said.

Asked whether this performance regarding the KLA leaders on trial in The Hague might help Kurti in resolving the political crisis in Kosovo, Pasic responds affirmatively.

“I believe it will, because it is certainly about unifying the electorate. So even his political opponents will probably soften their stance after such statements. Kurti’s behavior is, above all, political in nature. He has a clearly defined stance, and it is well known how he behaved toward the people who once led the so-called Republic of Kosovo,” the former military prosecutor concluded.