A supporter of President Hashim Thaci wearing a hat with the American flag and a mask with the KLA emblem. Photo: EPA-EFE/ Valdrin Xhemaj

Kosovo MPs are pushing to finalize enforcement of a draft law on Protection of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Values, despite US concern that it may violate freedom of speech.

On July 29, the US Ambassador to Kosovo, Philip Kosnett, reminding Kosovos leaders to focus on the fight against COVID-19 and on economic recovery, on Twitter raised concern that the proposed KLA Values Law criminalizes free speech, intimidates citizens, and is costly.

The concern has arisen because the draft law obliges any public official and citizen of the Republic of Kosovo to respect and protect the war values determined by this law in any time and circumstance within the country and abroad.

The draft law attempts to legalize an institutional and civic obligation to protect the image of the guerrilla army that took on Serbian forces in the 1990s, and pioneered the creation of an independent state.

It predicts the establishment of a War Museum, and the Day of Remembrance of the war that ended in 1999 with the withdrawal of Serbian forces following a prolonged NATO campaign.

According to the law, the so-called values of war include the KLA itself as an armed military formation, its veterans, flag, soldiers oath, coat of arms, the General Staff, Political Directorate, Staffs of operational areas and archives, as well as the Adem Jashari Memorial Complex in Prekaz and other complexes.

Budgetary implications, if the Assembly approves the draft law, will be about 2.25 million euros, without considering construction of the War Museum.

The draft law was supported by the government on July 14 and forwarded to the presidency of the Assembly. It was proposed by the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, on April 2018, but delayed by the change of government after former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned in July 2019.

He was summoned by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, KSC, based in the Hague, which was established to try former KLA members for war crimes.

The PDK and the Organization of War Veterans of the KLA are optimistic that MPs will back the law despite their political differences.

The draft law came back to the fore when President Hashim Thaci who was the KLAs political leader during the 1998-99 war was interviewed by the Hague-based warcrime prosecutors for four days from July 13. They can easily conclude that I have not committed any war crimes, Thaci had told the media on July 17 after the interview had ended.

The Hague-based Prosecutors Office announced on June 24 that it had filed a ten-count indictment with the KSC, charging Thaci, PDK leader Kadri Veseli and other former KLA members with a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture.

Unlike the PDK and KLA veterans, Vetevendosje, the largest opposition party in Kosovo, has voiced some objections to the draft law. Rexhep Selimi, head of the Vetevendosje parliamentary group, said on July 18 that the content of the draft law did not match the topic it addresses. Despite that, Vetevendosje has said it support the adoption of a law to protect the KLA and its values.

In late April 2020, former Prime Minister Albin Kurti, from Vetevendosje, dismissed Shkelzen Gashi as his adviser following Gashis comments about crimes committed by KLA fighters.

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Kosovo Pushes Ahead with Law to Protect KLA's Reputation - Balkan Insight