Kosovo War Veterans Stage Protest Against Hague Special Court

Kosovo Liberation Army veterans and others held a protest in Pristina against the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, accusing it of bias and of attempting to 'rewrite history'.

Xhorxhina Bami, August 7, 2025

Protest against the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in the Kosovo capital Pristina, August 7, 2025. Photo: BIRN .

Members of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s Veterans Organisation, joined by other organisations deriving from the Kosovo war and other citizens, held a protest on Thursday against the Kosovo Specialist Chambers war crimes court in Pristina, accusing it of bias and of attempting to “rewrite history”.

Faik Shehu, a former member of the KLA, travelled around 100 kilometres from the south of Kosovo to join thousands of citizens at Pristina’s main square to protest against the Hague-based Chambers, which is trying his former comrades.

“The court, which was established on the basis of justice, is doing an injustice to the people [of Kosovo] who were persecuted by Serbia,” Shehu, who represents the local branch of the KLA Veterans’ Organisation, told BIRN.

The Pristina municipality offered free tickets for public transport and free parking in one of the city’s biggest parking lots for the protesters.

“The Special Court has deviated from its mission. It is biased and is trying to distort history,” Hysni Gucati, head of the KLA Veterans’ Organisation, told the crowd.

Gucati, who himself was jailed by the Specialist Chambers for obstruction of justice and witness intimidation, said that “the KLA fighters were the legitimate answer of our oppressed people against the Serbian regime led by [Slobodan] Milosevic.

“Our war was not only for liberation but for the existence of our people against ethnic cleansing, rapes, murders and the forceful disappearance of the Albanian identity in Kosovo,” he said.

Gazmend Syla, also from the KLA Veterans’ Organisation, urged the international community not to allow the so-called Special Court “to try to rewrite our history”, as this would also risk “rewriting the establishment of our state, which we have built together with the international community, so shaking the the foundations of our country”.

The Specialist Chambers were established in 2015 by the Kosovo parliament to investigate the alleged crimes of KLA members against ethnic minorities and political rivals in the years 1998 to 2000.

The Chambers are part of Kosovo’s judicial system but are located in The Hague and staffed by internationals, established under pressure from the country’s Western allies, who believed Kosovo’s own justice system was not robust enough to try KLA cases and protect witnesses from intimidation.

Two former guerrillas have been found guilty of war crimes by the chambers so far, Pjeter Shala, known as “Commander Wolf”, sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment, and Salih Mustafa, known as “Commander Cali”, sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.

The timeframe of the court’s jurisdiction has been unsuccessfully disputed by defendants.

Last month, the Specialist Chambers dismissed a joint motion from the defence of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three others, all of them ex-KLA officials on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The motion challenged the inclusion of alleged crimes that happened before May 1998 and after June 20, 1999 as they did not happen during the time of the Kosovo war, but was dismissed by the judge on a technicality.

The ruling caused further outrage among Kosovo Albanians who believe the court is ethnically biased and denigrates the KLA’s just war against Serbian repression.

Copyright BIRN 2015