A protest will be held in Skopje, North Macedonia, before December 22, in defense of former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
This was announced by the president of the OVL-KLA, Hysni Gucati, and the leader of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI/BDI), Ali Ahmeti.
The protest will take place before the conclusion of the judicial process at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, said Gucati.
“We have coordinated to jointly hold a protest in Skopje in December. This was our meeting today with the party leader, or with the former commander we met, and we agreed that in December, before December 22, the protest will be held in Skopje with our brothers there. This will be the sixth protest in a series. We have taken it as our obligation and duty from the governing council and the leadership to hold these protests in Pristina, Tirana, The Hague, Strasbourg, and the final protest will be in Macedonia, specifically in Albanian Skopje,” declared Gucati.
After the meeting with the OVL-KLA leaders, the head of the DUI/BDI, Ali Ahmeti, stated that Albanians from North Macedonia also have a moral obligation to protest in defense of former KLA leaders.
“We have continuously expressed our concerns about the injustices done to the Kosovo Liberation Army, regarding acts not committed by the KLA. As Chairman Gucati said, these demonstrations have been held in all areas, both domestically and abroad. Albanians, members of the KLA in Macedonia who participated in the Kosovo war, have a moral duty as members of the national army to express dissatisfaction and demonstrate the innocence of our fellow fighters. The details will be communicated to the public, and discussions will be held with the organizational council here as well as with the organizing council that will operate for the Skopje protest,” Ahmeti said.
Ahmeti considered the issue delicate regarding veterans participating in the protest, especially when asked how they would ensure these individuals would not be arrested upon crossing the border into North Macedonia.
“This is a somewhat delicate issue, and we will be careful in these movements because we do not have information from institutions about who might be targeted based on reports submitted by Belgrade. This will be discussed between the organizational councils here and in Skopje,” said Ahmeti.
Meanwhile, Hysni Gucati, president of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans Organization (OVL-KLA), said that those who do not feel safe should not participate in the protest.
“I believe the protest in Albanian Skopje will be very large, very massive. People will come from Kosovo, Albania, and other Albanian areas. As Mr. Ahmeti said, we will monitor all cases where there may be issues; I do not believe there will be arrests. I believe the Macedonian state will not heed Serbia this time, even though Serbia has significant influence and has issued arrest warrants. I have been to France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and many European countries without problems, so I do not believe there will be problems here. Where we see potential issues, we will make an appeal: people who do not feel safe should not come. But there will be many citizens from Kosovo; certainly, there will be many attendees. This is the final protest, and Albanian Skopje will welcome many Albanians,” Gucati said.
Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Forces in Europe, General Wesley Clark, testified this week in defense of former President Hashim Thaçi.
“I have said before, Wesley Clark will be a bombshell for the Special Court. The only person who has ever claimed that the Kosovo Liberation Army is criminal is the Balkan criminal, Milosevic. I do not believe anyone else can say what Milosevic said, except the prosecutors of the Special Court who claim that the KLA committed crimes, which is false — it is a big lie from a madman. I said this also in Strasbourg, in France,” he said.
Ali Ahmeti, a fellow fighter, also spoke about the importance of Clark’s testimony, recounting what he had been told two years ago.
“I met General Clark two years ago. He told us about a meeting with Milosevic where he said, ‘Leave it to us, we will handle the Albanians.’ How will you handle them? ‘We will kill them all.’ But yesterday at the Tribunal, my body shivered when I heard him tell the Tribunal the same thing. Is there any greater testimony than when the president of the state tells NATO’s general that ‘we will kill all Albanians’? General Clark made statements not only in defense of our liberators but of all fighters who fought for freedom and independence,” Ahmeti concluded.
Organizations formed from the Kosovo Liberation Army have protested on Sunday in front of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, in support of former KLA leaders being unjustly tried in The Hague.
Another large protest was held on October 17 in Tirana, demanding justice for former KLA leaders.
A day before the hearing of the first defense witness, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin, a protest also took place in The Hague near the Special Court building, attended by around 10,000 Albanians from around the world.
