Gucati appeals to the EU and ambassadors: Do not play with the decision of September 16

Gucati has criticized the statements that the process does not end with the decision of the first instance, as the parties have the right to appeal, calling them a “dirty political game with the scales of justice”.

According to him, an unjust decision in the first instance would cause immediate damage to Kosovo, as Serbia would use it in diplomacy, in the UN and in efforts to delegitimize Kosovo.

Gucati has stated that a decision that would link the KLA war with organized crime would also affect the way the liberation war, NATO intervention and Kosovo’s citizenship are treated internationally.

He said that such a decision would give Serbia “new diplomatic ammunition” and would produce new tensions and conflicts, while he asked the international community not to play with Kosovo’s wounds.

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APPEAL of KLA veterans to the EU AND foreign ambassadors

Many foreign ambassadors, as well as the EU yesterday, in an effort to manage citizens’ dissatisfaction with the Special Court, are saying: everything does not end on September 16, because the parties have the Appeal.

Except what they are not saying directly: “Don’t prevent us from punishing them once, because we declare them innocent on appeal”.

This is a dirty political game with the scales of justice.

The Special Court, since the beginning, has reported to diplomats, because it was created and supported by them. It has never acted as an independent institution of justice.

In fact, it seemed more concerned about the attitudes of diplomatic missions than about the findings of international organizations regarding the human rights violations that occurred there.

For almost six years, this court has only produced narratives that have served Serbia.

Every claim of Serbia has been addressed and rehabilitated. Despite the lack of credibility of the Serbian witnesses, he accepted them as witnesses. Despite the instability of their testimony, the Serbian claims have been treated as material for trial.

Therefore, the desire of some ambassadors may even now be for the Special Court to continue to serve Serbia with a decision in the first instance, to correct it later in the Appeal, as we are being told. But an unjust verdict in the first instance is not undone by an acquittal in the second instance.

The damage to Kosovo is done that day. History is rewritten that day. Serbia uses that day.

And Serbia does not wait for the Appeal.

She immediately used such a decision in the UN, in diplomacy, in the campaign for the de-recognition of Kosovo and in her efforts to delegitimize Kosovo as a state.

The consequences would be very big even within Kosovo.

If a court connects Kosovo’s liberation war with organized crime, the damage does not remain only in the courtroom in The Hague. From that hall, the war of the KLA would be universally criminalized.

And along with it, the legitimacy of the liberation of Kosovo, the intervention of NATO and the very citizenship of the Republic of Kosovo would be affected.

The signature of the KLA political representative in Rambuje was decisive for the NATO intervention. In coordination with the four former leaders of the KLA who are being tried in The Hague, the North Atlantic Alliance also coordinated various bombings of Serbian targets.

Therefore, a narrative that criminalizes the KLA war does not only affect the past. It also affects the political and moral basis on which the state of Kosovo was built.

Likewise, it also affects the multi-ethnic character of Kosovo, in which the international community has invested since 1999.

The Special Court, in case of an unjust decision, would give Serbia new diplomatic ammunition.

An unjust decision that criminalizes our war, at a time when Serbia continues to deny its crimes and glorify the state apparatus that committed them, does not produce peace.

Produces new wounds. It produces tension. It produces new conflict.

The international community has invested 27 years talking to us about peace, reconciliation and coexistence. Therefore, he should know that peace is not built by humiliating justice.

Reconciliation is not built by criminalizing the victim as a party.

And stability is not preserved by playing with the wounds of our people.

Justice is not a ladder game, where the damage caused in the first is forgotten after the second decision.

The international community has betrayed the trust of Kosovo, because it alienated the mission and purpose of the Special Court.

She must not lose what is left between us.

An unjust decision does not bring peace, but conflict.

And whoever is playing with this fire today cannot say tomorrow that he did not know what he was doing.

Justice cannot be just in the end. It should be right from the start.

Therefore, the APPEAL that KLA veterans address to the EU and foreign ambassadors is not to play politics with the decision of September 16 in the Special Court.

Don’t play with our wounds anymore! Don’t make this mistake!

Hysni Gucati, Chairman of the OVL of the KLA