The Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans Organization (OVL-UÇK) has announced that it has sent a public letter to several international institutions and organizations, requesting the withdrawal of their names from any reference of support for the publication “Massacres in Kosovo 1998–1999” by author Shkëlzen Gashi, KosovaPress reports.
According to OVL-UÇK, the letter was sent to the Community Development Fund (CDF) – Embassy of Sweden in Kosovo, Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), Institute of International Education (IIE), the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland (FDFA) – Embassy of Switzerland in Kosovo, Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB), as well as the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS) / Open Society Foundations.
According to the letter, one of the main issues is the lack of a clear research methodology, which, according to the organization, makes the publication closer to a compilation rather than a proper scientific study. It is also stated that in some cases events described as “massacres” are included, even though the publication itself acknowledges a lack of sufficient sources for them, creating contradictions and doubts about the accuracy of the data.
OVL-UÇK also criticizes the classification of victims, describing the strict division between civilians and combatants as reductive, arguing that it does not reflect the complexity of the reality on the ground and may lead to distorted interpretations.The organization argues that the involvement of international institutions as supporters of the publication is not neutral and creates a direct link between institutional legitimacy and the content, despite formal statements of distancing.
