The former President of Albania during the war in Kosovo, Rexhep Mejdani, has reacted sharply to the decision of the Hague Specialized Chambers, which sentenced 4 former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army to 81 years in prison.

He emphasized that Kosovo and its people were victims of the violence of the Serbian regime and that individual responsibility should not affect the assessment of the history of the war and Kosovo's independence.

Speaking about Albania's relations with the West, Mejdani said that support for the Euro-Atlantic orientation does not, according to him, imply silence in the face of decisions that are considered unjust.

Meidan's reaction:

I was President of the Republic in the difficult years when Albania and its people opened their borders and hearts to their Albanian brothers in Kosovo who were being expelled from their homes and lands by the militias and paramilitaries of Milosevic's repressive regime. I have felt this repression since my years as a lecturer at the University of Prishtina, especially in 1981 and afterwards when not only were we not allowed to continue our lectures, but it also became extremely difficult for us to have contacts and communications with our students. As a politician and as Head of State, I also experienced the highest degree of Milosevic's cruelty and repression against the Albanian people of Kosovo, which reached extreme genocidal levels.

Today's verdict in The Hague bears the name of the people of Kosovo, but no judge on that panel belongs to Kosovo or understands it, and the hearing was not even held on its soil. This is the question that torments me more than the excessive, unreasonably long number of years. In fact, in whose name does such a court speak, when the people it claims to represent have no voice or weight within it, but protest outside it or in the squares of Kosovo? The verdict is of first instance; the process continues. The missing justice must be given! But, alas, it must represent the will of the people of Kosovo, not disappoint it.

What is not discussed is the historical context: Kosovo and its people were victims of the violence of the Serbian state, not equal parties to the aggressor. Individual responsibility, if it existed, can in no way relativize that fact, nor call into question the freedom and independence that Kosovo won at the cost of human lives, especially its young people. This has been acknowledged these days, as well as during the Kosovo crisis, by many Western voices, and they were and are right.

Personally, I think that no judicial decision can take away the place occupied by Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi in one of the brightest chapters of our national history.

At that time, when the freedom of Kosovo and the peace of the region were still an uncertain ideal, they dared to shoulder the historic burden of bringing freedom to their people, at a moment when everything was at stake and no success was guaranteed.

I saw that danger up close, during my time as President, in the sad scenes of forced evictions and mass murders. I also knew them as sons, as brave warriors and leaders, with youthful excitement and a willingness to sacrifice, and not at all as people capable of criminal activity, as they are portrayed today.

Today I think of these four men and their families, who have borne the brunt of this process for nearly six years, as they continue their struggle and sacrifice to guarantee a free Kosovo. I stand with them, as I have been and will always be.

Albania chose the Western path in the early years of democracy, and I have supported that choice as a citizen and President.

But loyalty to that path does not require silence when something seems unfair to us. It requires that we ask our Western allies to adhere, in every case and for every people, no matter how small, to the principles on which democracy is built, above all: freedom, equality, and justice for all, without exception.

Therefore, I believe that these sentences should be challenged to the last degree, with every legal means available. In fact, the Assembly of Kosovo has the obligation to decide that this court, in its current form, does not deserve to continue speaking on behalf of a people that it does not recognize as its own.