Thousands rally in Kosovo against war crimes convictions of wartime leaders

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Thousands of demonstrators rallied in Kosovo on Thursday in the biggest nationwide protest yet against recent war crimes convictions for four of its wartime rebel leaders.

Earlier this month, a court in The Hague, Netherlands, found former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders guilty of war crimes committed during the 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia . They were sentenced to between 13 and 25 years in prison.

The verdicts have sparked daily protests in the small Balkan country.

Kosovo has criticized the verdicts as unjust, maintaining that the KLA, which Thaci had led before entering politics, fought against Serbian oppression. Both residents and politicians fear the court ruling would tarnish Kosovo's independence struggle.

Protesters filled the central squares of the capital Pristina on Thursday, carrying banners reading “not in my name” and praising the KLA as a liberation movement. Earlier in the day, a group of citizens expressed disappointment with countries in the European Union, saying “the EU let Kosovo down” because it backs the court in The Hague.

Iliriana Bullartovci, who traveled with her daughter from a small town to join the crowd, said the four convicted leaders are “innocent.” “This is a great injustice,” she said.

More than 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, were killed during the conflict in Kosovo , while about 1 million ethnic Albanian Kosovars were driven from their homes during the fighting.

A 78-day campaign of NATO airstrikes against Serbian forces eventually forced Belgrade to withdraw from Kosovo, which was a Serbian province at the time. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, which Serbia still does not recognize.

In a rare sign of unity within Kosovo’s fractured legislative assembly, lawmakers earlier this week unanimously condemned the war crimes verdicts in a declaration. The opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo has suggested going further, proposing a law that would limit the mandate of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the Hague-based court for handling KLA crimes.

On Thursday, protesters blocked a road near Pristina's airport as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was on a Balkan tour, arrived at the capital.

Later, at a news conference with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, von der Leyen said the war crimes verdicts were “delivered by independent judicial institutions, and their mandate must be fully respected."

“Nothing and nobody can rewrite Kosovo’s history," she said. "1999 is engraved in Europe’s collective memory: the violent repression, the humanitarian crisis and the suffering endured by your people.”

Kurti, who took office nearly three weeks ago after an election in June, did not oppose the law condemning the verdicts, but said he was “waiting for an interpretation from my legal office.”

“We believe the verdicts contain factual, historical and legal errors, and we expect these to be corrected on appeal,” Kurti told reporters after meeting von der Leyen.

Though largely peaceful, the protests have added to an already month-long political crisis following a deadlock of over19 months that has blocked the election of a president and led to two early elections.

Kurti faces an Oct. 6 deadline to reach a deal with opposition groups on the next president, or another early election will be held.