Thaci Verdict Set for September 16: EULEX and Vucic Speak
Ahead of the verdict against Hashim Thaci and three co-defendants, EULEX speaks for the first time on community safety, KLA veterans threaten protests, and Vucic predicts a 'historic verdict'.
The first instance verdict against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi will be delivered on September 16 at 10 a.m. before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. Ahead of that ruling, the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) has for the first time publicly stated its position on the safety of communities in Kosovo, the KLA War Veterans Organization is announcing protests, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is once again talking about what he calls a “historic verdict.”
The four former senior officials of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) are charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against Serbs, Roma and Albanians in more than 40 KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and Albania during 1998 and 1999. All four have pleaded not guilty. In February, at the close of the trial, the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office asked the panel to find all four guilty and sentence each of them to 45 years in prison. The trial panel has said it needs additional time to reach a verdict because of the volume of evidence and the complexity of the case.
Srpske novine previously reported on the indictment Pristina filed against 35 police officers over the killings in Prekaz, which also named Milorad Ulemek Legija, and on the presence of KFOR, the NATO-led Kosovo Force, on the Ibar bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica. Until now, we had not reported on how security structures are preparing for the moment the verdict is handed down, an issue that received its first official confirmation from EULEX today.
What EULEX is saying
According to the KoSSev portal, EULEX said the safety and security of all communities in Kosovo remains its top priority, and that the mission stays vigilant within its mandate and continues to monitor the security situation in coordination with the Kosovo Police and the NATO-led KFOR mission. Asked directly about the possibility of violence against Serbs, which Vucic had raised earlier, and about any additional measures planned in Serb communities ahead of September 16, the mission did not give a direct answer.
Mobilization in Pristina and Mitrovica
Ahead of the verdict, a “March for Freedom” has been announced in Pristina for September 12, part of a campaign called “Kosovo Waits.” The march’s slogan is “Kosovo Waits,” and the call for the political spectrum to turn out that day came from Ismail Tasholli, of the “Freedom Has a Name” platform. A clock counting down to the verdict has already been installed in central Pristina, alongside banners supporting the defendants, and a similar installation stands in the main square of southern Mitrovica. Support for the campaign is spreading beyond veteran and political circles: the Kosovo Chamber of Physicians officially endorsed the march this week, after a meeting between its president, Pleurat Sejdiu, and representatives of the “Freedom Has a Name” platform.
Hysni Gucati, president of the KLA War Veterans Organization, said a guilty verdict could trigger a reaction reaching beyond Kosovo’s borders.
If the worst happens, we will not sit with our arms crossed. We will call for protests, and the situation could escalate. There could be demonstrations and civil unrest.
Gucati added that the protests would not stay confined to Kosovo, but could, in his words, spread to Albania and North Macedonia as well.
Vucic: “On the 16th, we will see everything”
Appearing on Informer television overnight, Serbia’s president repeated that September 16 will be the day everything, as he puts it, becomes clear. “On the sixteenth we will understand everything. On the sixteenth we will see,” Vucic said, adding that if the verdict confirms what he calls the earlier pattern from the cases of Ratko Mladic, Naser Oric and Ante Gotovina, it would show that “the Serbs have to be the only guilty ones.”
Speaking about the proceedings against Thaci, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi, Vucic said:
Now, when what is a historic verdict has to be delivered, it would become clear how the so called KLA was formed, and how it committed crimes against Serbs.
Asked whether the verdict could serve as a kind of corrective for Kosovo’s current prime minister, Albin Kurti, Vucic answered briefly: “I won’t talk about that. I won’t interfere. I’m not interested in that.”
Until September 16, one question remains open that neither EULEX nor Pristina has answered concretely: what security measures will actually be put in place in Serb communities in northern Kosovo if the KLA veterans’ warnings come true.
