Pristina: Eighth Protest Night, March Set for October 1
Eighth night of protests on Skanderbeg Square in Pristina against the Specialized Chambers verdict, as 'Freedom Has a Name' plans an October 1 march in Pristina and an October 10 rally in Brussels.
The eighth consecutive night of protest is planned for this evening in Pristina, on Skanderbeg Square, in support of four former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commanders convicted in The Hague. The ‘Freedom Has a Name’ platform has called on citizens to gather from 9 p.m. at the same site where the protest has been held every evening since September 16.
That day, the Specialized Chambers sentenced Hashim Thaci and Jakup Krasniqi to 25 years in prison each, Kadri Veseli to 18 years, and Rexhep Selimi to 13 years, a combined 81 years. The verdict covers unlawful detention, cruel treatment, torture and killings committed between April 1998 and June 20, 1999, in Kosovo and at two locations in Albania.
The seventh night of protest, ahead of tonight’s gathering, was marked by one of the organizers, Qlirim Haziri. ‘Seven days, seven nights. Every night, at the same time, in the same square. Every night together for the KLA,’ Haziri said from the stage on Skanderbeg Square. He announced that the gatherings will continue until the institutions respond to the demand to amend the Law on Specialized Chambers, which has since reached the Kosovo Assembly.
The mobilization has meanwhile spread beyond the capital. The OVL-OVK, an organization of KLA war veterans, has decided to organize protests in every Kosovo town where it has a branch, with gatherings set for 5 p.m. The Decani municipal assembly adopted a ‘Not in My Name’ declaration at an emergency session, while footballers and coaching staff of the Kosovo national team wore white shirts reading ‘Justice for the Liberators’ and ‘Not in My Name’ during training at Fadil Vokrri Stadium. In the preceding days, protests outside Kosovo, in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Germany and Austria, sent the same message of support.
The ‘Freedom Has a Name’ platform announced that the campaign will move to other cities in the coming days:
- Prizren, September 25 at 7 p.m., at Shadervan
- Hannover, September 26, a solidarity march
- Geneva, September 27, Place des Nations
- Pristina, October 1, the central march
- Brussels, October 10, a rally with diaspora participation
The date of the central march in Pristina was not chosen at random. ‘On October 1, 1997, Kosovo students took to the streets in a peaceful protest that remains one of the symbolic moments,’ said Eliza Hoxha, a representative of the ‘Freedom Has a Name’ platform, announcing that the peaceful march under the slogan ‘Not in My Name’ will start again on that date, continuing ten days later in Brussels with the diaspora. The platform also launched a civic petition that same day, which, according to the announcement, will be symbolically sent to Brussels, Strasbourg and The Hague.
Platform representative Ismail Tasholi also called for a joint session of the Kosovo and Albanian governments, with a single item on the agenda: financial and legal support for the defense in the appeals process.
The call for institutional coordination comes alongside a political divide over the tone used to discuss the verdict. PDK deputy chair Vlora Citaku criticized Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s language about a ‘sentencing asymmetry,’ arguing that the problem is not the length of the sentences but that the verdict, in her words, criminalizes the liberation struggle. Acting president Albulena Haxhiu, on the other hand, called for institutional unity, saying that what is needed now is not divisions over who is a collaborator but agreement on next steps. That same day, Haxhiu also invited the families of the four convicted men to a meeting.
The divide over the issue is also illustrated by a statement from Getoarbe Muliq, executive director of the Association of Journalists of Kosovo, who steered part of the public debate toward those she calls ‘Albanian spies.’ ‘Kosovo is ours. It doesn’t belong to spies,’ Muliq wrote.
Srpske Novine previously reported Albulena Haxhiu’s (also spelled Hoxhaj) statement that she does not plan to normalize relations with Serbia while the dispute over the Specialized Chambers continues. The government in Pristina has so far not announced the concrete plan that the ‘Freedom Has a Name’ platform is demanding, nor a deadline for it. The next date against which that lack of a response will be measured is October 1, the day of the announced march in Pristina.
