KLA Commander: Victim or Assassin?

Former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Commander, Fatmir Limaj, on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, asked to address the Court following his defence counsel's opening statement. For two hours, the former Kosovo Assembly member gave an impassioned view of the Kosovo in which he grew up, which became ever more oppressive under the rule of Slobodan Milosevic as President of Serbia, until it was a police state with Albanian citizens living an apartheid existence in relation to their Serb neighbors.

While honoring and submitting to the authority of the ICTY, Limaj challenged proceedings against him and his co-accused, as well as other former KLA members charged in Kosovo, as scapegoating and an attempt to criminalize the KLA. He pointed out that the ICTY charged three former KLA members for crimes committed in 1998, while it has not brought charges against any of the Serbian forces who perpetrated civilian massacres throughout Kosovo during that year.

Limaj described how life in Kosovo became intolerable under Milosevic's rule. The province's autonomy was revoked, a half million citizens of Albanian ethnicity were fired from public sector jobs, approximately 300,000 left the country to live or work abroad, citizens were regularly harassed by the police, many were thrown into jail and beaten, and they were denied access to the educational and health care system. To illustrate the situation and to give the judges a chance to 'feel with the soul of the people,' Limaj described two stories that left a particularly great impression on him.

One morning he and his friends witnessed an old man and woman standing in front of the bus and yelling about something that 'scared the hell out of us.' One of them approached the old woman and asked why she was crying. 'I just saw my only son off,' she told them. He was migrating abroad, leaving the two old people on their own. The grandfather was holding onto his little granddaughter, kissing her. 'It was difficult to watch the scene of their parting,' he told the Court. 'I understood the old man was blind. The little girl was his eyes.'

Another family with seven children 'took the road of migration,' according to the Accused, but they could not afford to take all of their children and were obliged to leave three behind. 'It was unbelievable to see the scene and the horror of a mother parting with her own children,' Limaj explained to the judges.

For those who stayed, there was no family without a relative who had been mistreated by the police, he said. The people themselves were 'outlawed.' There was no prospect for a better life, Limaj explained. 'There came a moment when it was difficult to cope with the massive humiliation to family, friends and neighbors.' Speaking of the rise of the KLA, he went on, 'Under a situation when no one sees you, gives you even a single sign of hope that things will get better . . ., when violence is increasing, the occupation is increasing, there comes a time for survival.'

The tipping point for him and many others came in February - March 1998, when Serb forces attacked villages in the central Drenica valley, including the family compound of famed KLA member Adem Jashari. According to Human Rights Watch, 83 people were killed including 24 women and children. Limaj, who had received political asylum in Switzerland, returned to Kosovo and, along with many others joined the KLA. At that time, there were fewer than 200 KLA members who operated as a guerilla force. Within the year, it was transformed into a regular army.

Limaj asserted he did not become a KLA brigade commander until August 1998, after the period of the indictment against him (May - July 1998), and declared his innocence of the charges: '[F]or all the things I have done until now throughout my life, I have no reasons to . . . have a bad conscience.' Earlier, his Defence Counsel read glowing reports about his contributions as a political leader, following the cessation of hostilities, from local and international officials. He was praised for calming citizens angry about his arrest, urging them to support the Tribunal and its process. Those who wrote in his behalf described him as a bridge builder, one who worked for multi-ethnic dialogue and an inclusive government. As one put it, 'He is one of the most progressive and enlightened politicians working in Kosovo today.'

As the Accused said, addressing the Court near the end of his speech: 'If I were in Kosovo today, there is need for my contribution to build a democratic society. This saddens me because I have no possibilities to contribute which was the ideal for all citizens of Kosovo. I hope I will have possibilities to go back and render contributions where I can.'

Limaj's character appears to be a major part of his defence, i.e. that what he is charged with is so totally out of character it is unbelievable. He told the Court about 'an old saying of my people: suspicion is like the fog that covers the beautiful landscape.' The Prosecution, he said, is trying to cover his personality like fog. 'I hope you will be able to dispel it to look at the true picture behind it, my true personality, who I am, who I was and whether I deserve to be where I am today.'

Limaj also spoke his mind about the indictment against him, which he characterized as 'concocted' by the Prosecution as a way to unite the two peoples (Serbs and Albanians) or appease Serbia. 'I'll never, never accept I was involved in their fate [the twenty victims he is accused of murdering].' That was not to deny that crimes were committed, he told the Court. 'I express my regret and condolences to all victims -- from my people or Serbian people. I hope the true culprits will be found and condemned. Victims will be happy only if you condemn the true culprits.'

When he referred to seven separate massacres of Kosovar Albanian civilians in 1998 for which no one has been indicted, he was not trying to justify crimes committed by Albanians, he said, but neither would he accept the justice of prosecuting three former KLA members for alleged crimes involving a small number of people, when no one has been indicted for the massacre of 83 people, including 24 women and children, in Drenica, or the massacre of 21 members of the Delijaj family, all civilians, five of whom were children between eighteen months and nine years of age in Gornje Obrinje. Saying that he did not want to make distinctions based on numbers and that victims are victims regardless, he nevertheless pointed out that between February and December 1998, 3000 Albanian civilians were killed by Serb forces while approximately 100 Serbs were killed or disappeared. 'I express condolences to all victims. I know what it means to suffer,' he told the Court. Still, he was deeply offended that members of the Serbian State Security and a commander who led massacres against Kosovo Albanians are scheduled to testify against him and his co-accused. 'Is the criminal being judged or the victim?' he asked the Court.

'Yesterday, the Prosecutor explained his views of what a criminal I was. If I was a Serb officer (who did bad things) everything would be okay. I'm proud that together with my co-fighters I defended 85,000 civilians who were constantly for six months endangered by special Serb units led by the notorious criminal Legija and you can imagine what a man he was, having no one to kill, killed his own Prime Minister [Zoran Dzindzic].'

Limaj compared KLA fighters to 'those who fought for their country in Croatia and Bosnia,' who are being respected and honored while the contrary is occurring in Kosovo, where 'about 500 KLA members have gone through institutions of transparent justice. Hundreds are held without indictment. Dozens are punished and serving sentences.' Kosovo emerged from war as a UN protectorate with its final status unresolved, while Bosnia and Croatia are independent states. 'We feel like orphans,' Limaj told the judges. 'No one from official bodies are allowed to visit' the imprisoned Kosovo Albanians. 'We feel as if we are abandoned.'

Apparently, visits to the three men were curtailed following reports that witnesses scheduled to testify against them have been intimidated. A relative of Limaj's co-accused Isak Musliu, Beqa Beqaj, has been charged with contempt of court and arrested. In addition, Dutch police had blindfolded them alone among prisoners for transport between the Detention Unit and the Tribunal. The Court directed that the practice cease.

In describing himself to the Court, the Accused said he was an idealist, sometimes even naïve because he 'dreamed of another Kosovo than the one I saw after 1999. I cannot say I am content with what I see. I dreamed of a free Kosovo for all citizens, opportunities to all, where citizens are proud to be citizens. Unfortunately, it is a different country. I hope it will become as I want it to be.'

To describe his situation when Kosovo was freed from Serb rule, Limaj quoted Michelle Morel who attempted to write a poem when France was liberated at the end of WWII: 'In the early morning of freedom, I was distrustful of reality. I was in ecstasy, paralyzing ecstasy, trying to tell myself I was free. I tried to write a poem but never managed to say more than 'I'm free, I'm free and finally free.' For me, the concept of freedom was not broader than that.' For the Kosovo Albanian people, he said, the concept of freedom has not become broader. 'It is shrinking, being poisoned, undermined. A long suffering people are not content with not being beaten, but freedom has a broader meaning -- to work and to live as you wish.'

He concluded his statement with the following words: 'In front of you is a defender of victims, not an assassin of victims. I am happy for what I've done in the service of my country.'