Developments surrounding the trial at the Hague Specialized Chambers and Serbia's military movements in the region have prompted the reaction of former MP Azgan Haklaj, who emphasizes that while the international factor and Belgrade make political calculations, the Albanian popular will has given its verdict on the innocence of the KLA leaders.
Haklaj underlines that after the rejection of the thesis of “joint criminal enterprise”, the legal confrontation in The Hague has shifted to individual responsibility. He warns that this formulation should not be transformed into a mechanism to produce partial sentences without concrete evidence. In parallel with this process, he raises concerns about the Serbian military exercise “Pobednik 2026” on the Pešter plateau, where over 2,000 military troops and 500 armored and combat vehicles are engaged.
According to him, Belgrade is trying to exploit every possible scenario of the Hague decision, while in coordination with Moscow it aims to rewrite the narrative of 1999. Haklaj recalled the balance of Serbian crimes in Kosovo — with around 13,500 killed, 800 thousand forcibly expelled and 20 thousand women and girls raped — emphasizing that the intervention of NATO and the US came as a response to ethnic cleansing and humanitarian catastrophe.
In conclusion, he called on Albanians to seek historical justice for all the crimes committed against them over the centuries, including the massacres of Bihar, Tivar and the tragedy of Chameria. Referring to the march held in Pristina, Haklaj stated that in the face of the strategic calculations of others, the Albanian nation has already declared its verdict on the innocence of the liberators.
Full statement
THE HAGUE CALCULATES, SERBIA CALCULATES!
Albanianism decided on Skanderbeg Square in Pristina:
THE LIBERATORS ARE DECLARED INNOCENT!
Where the Epic of the Kreshniks and the lute of our rooms preserve the rhythm of Arbër blood, history is not written only with ink, but with perseverance.
The Hague has entered the phase of calculations regarding the fate of the charges against the liberators of Kosovo, those who stood up to the bloody machinery of Slobodan Milosevic.
The Hague has projected several scenarios:
Everyone is released; everyone is sentenced to a certain extent; or someone is released and someone remains.
Each variant will produce a new legal and political reality.
But while The Hague calculates on evidence and individual responsibility, Belgrade calculates scenarios on the ground.
On the Pešter plateau, in the area of New Bazaar, Serbia is conducting the large-scale military exercise “Pobednik 2026.” On September 11, the Serbian Ministry of Defense confirmed the engagement of over 2000 members of the Serbian Army and over 500 pieces of major combat equipment.
The exercise includes ground forces, aviation, air defense, special forces, armored vehicles, artillery, missile systems, and unmanned vehicles.
This is not proof that the exercise is targeting Kosovo, and such a connection should not be made without evidence.
But it is a fact that Serbia is demonstrating significant military capabilities in an area of strategic importance for the region.
So, two calculations are carried out in parallel:
The Hague calculates the decision, Serbia calculates the scenarios.
If the liberators are released, Belgrade will have to face a new political and narrative reality.
If some are convicted and remain in prison, Serbia will be able to use the decision as political and propaganda capital.
And if an intermediate decision occurs, someone leaves, someone stays, even then Belgrade will calculate how to use the result.
FROM THE ABOLITION OF “JOINT CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE” TO INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY!
The removal of the charge of "joint criminal enterprise" also changes the axis of the legal battle.
The confrontation shifts towards individual responsibility: What specifically did each person do, what evidence exists against them, and whether that evidence supports individual criminal responsibility.
But this is precisely where the political concern lies: "They are tried as individuals" but this action could turn into a tactic to make partial or separate sentences possible.
Therefore, the battle is not just for a common verdict.
It is also to prevent individual responsibility from being used as a mechanism to divide the issue and to legitimize separate punishments without concrete evidence against each person.
Liberators are innocent until individual guilt is proven with concrete and verifiable evidence.
For years, Carla Del Ponte's book and Dick Marty's statements have been at the foundation of this narrative.
But a published claim or a political statement is not in itself judicial evidence.
What is required is verifiable, administered, and tested evidence in the process.
Therefore, after the removal of the “joint criminal enterprise” thesis, individual responsibility cannot be transformed into a mechanism to produce partial or separate punishments without concrete evidence against each.
The individual is judged for his or her actions.
A people is not judged by its history.
A liberation war cannot be placed in the dock along with individuals.
Liberators cannot be condemned on the shadows of accusations.
They are judged on evidence.
And where there is no evidence, there can be no conviction.
JUSTICE AND POLITICS!
Meanwhile, the European Union has demanded respect for the decision of the Special Court, recalling the scope of the appeal. This declaration aims to calm the situation that is created after this decision that decides the historical fates of Pan-Albanianism and Slavism! I emphasize once again that this is a message that aims to calm the situation:
The decision must be respected, but the legal process does not necessarily end with the first instance.
And it is precisely here that justice must be clearly separated from politics, individual responsibility from the fate of a national cause, and the judicial decision from its political interpretation.
The history of the war for the liberation of Kosovo cannot be judged in its entirety through a trial of individuals.
Now The Hague is making decisions about the liberators as individuals with the aim of definitively punishing them.
The war for the liberation of Kosovo is a historical chapter.
SERBIA IS ALSO CALCULATING TO OVERTHROW THE 1999 NARRATIVE!
But Belgrade's calculation does not end with Kosovo.
In political coordination with Moscow and in function of its historical narrative, Serbia has been seeking for years to subvert the meaning of 1999:
To shift attention from the crimes, expulsions, and ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians to NATO bombings and place NATO and the United States themselves in the dock of history.
Let us never forget what happened in Kosovo.
Around 13500 people were killed, around 800 Albanians were forcibly expelled from Kosovo, thousands went missing, including children, while 20 Albanian women and girls were raped.
Over 100 mass murders and massacres were also committed.
This is the point from which any serious discussion about 1999 should begin.
First there was repression, there were murders, there were expulsions.
ethnic cleansing.
Then came NATO intervention.
NATO and the United States intervened to stop the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Kosovo.
Therefore, the attempt today to turn NATO and the US from those who stopped the catastrophe into the "accused" of history is an attempt to subvert the narrative:
The aggressor presents himself as a victim,
the victim to be relativized,
and those who intervened to stop the disaster should be put in the dock.
This is not just a battle for the past.
It is a battle for historical memory and for the future.
THE COURT OF HISTORY HAS NO STATUTE PERIOD!
The time has come for Albanians to also hold a trial of history, not a trial of peoples, but a trial of crimes, ideologies, regimes, and perpetrators who have exercised violence against Albanians.
Because history cannot have two scales.
While today in Serbia, figures of the past such as Draža Mihajlović and Pavle Đurišić are being rehabilitated, while Ratko Mladić is being glorified by nationalist circles, Albanians cannot be asked to forget the victims and remain silent in the face of attempts to rewrite history.
This is not a war against peoples.
It is about confronting crime, denial, and rehabilitating criminals.
Albanian history has recorded serious tragedies long before Kosovo:
The Bihar Massacre, in 1943, where thousands of people were killed, including civilians, many women and children.
The tragedy of the Albanians of Chameria, in 1944, with murders, deportations and cleansing of the Albanian population;
The Tivar massacre, in 1945, where thousands of Albanians were killed.
These are not pages that can be torn from history.
These are not wounds that heal with silence.
And they are not memories that can be erased by propaganda.
The time has come to put those who seek to put us on trial in history on trial.
Not for revenge.
Not to judge other peoples.
But to seek truth, memory, and historical justice.
Because crimes don't disappear by remaining silent.
Victims don't die a second time when memory protects them.
And history cannot be written only by the victors of propaganda.
WHEN A NATION SPEAKS!
The march "All Albanians on the march for freedom!" was not just a rally.
It was an expression of a popular stance, a strong sense of belonging and common destiny, as well as a direct demand for the freedom of the liberators.
However, a nation carved in the storms of centuries cannot build its future solely on the calculations of others.
Therefore, in the face of any external calculation, Albanians must also have their own political calculation:
What do they want?
What do they protect?
What future do they seek?
This is where the idea of a pan-Albanian referendum makes sense, not for party elections, not as an electoral competition, but as a direct expression of the national will for freedom and for those who sacrificed everything for it.
THE NATION DECIDED!
At the march, the nation spoke.
In the referendum, the nation decided:
DECLARE THE LIBERATORS INNOCENT!
This is the political response of a nation that does not accept that its history be written solely by others.
Because while The Hague calculates the verdict and Serbia calculates the consequences, Albanians cannot remain spectators of their history.
Where our Epic has preserved the memory of resistance for generations, where the lute has conveyed the voice of bravery from one generation to the next, even today a nation demands that its history not be written solely by others.
THE HAGUE CALCULATES.
SERBIA CALCULATES.
THE ALBANIAN NATION DECIDED.
INNOCENT LIBERATORS!
