"We will never forget any place of Serb suffering" - Ivica Dacic reacts to verdict against KLA leaders

Photo: MUP Srbija

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dacic today reacted to the sentencing of Hashim Tachi, Jakup Krasniqi, Kadri Veseli, and Rexhep Selimi before the Kosovo Speciaist Chambers in The Hague, pointing out that the court's decision represents a belated confirmation of the criminal nature of the KLA ("Kosovo Liberation Army"), but also pointed to the scandalous errors on the part of the international judiciary.

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"Today's conviction of Hashim Thaci, Jakup Krasniqi, Kadri Veseli, and Rexhep Selimi by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague is a clear, albeit belated confirmation of what Serbia and the Serb people have been saying loudly for more than a quarter of a century - that the so-called KLA was a criminal and terrorist organization," Dacic posted on Instagram, and added:

"This is legal proof that its top political and military leaders are personally responsible for atrocities, murders, kidnappings and brutal torture of our people in Kosovo and Metohija.

With this verdict, the false narrative built over decades, about some kind of 'national heroes' and 'just liberation struggle' has finally been dismantled in front of the world. Those who hid behind political positions are today officially and permanently inscribed where they always belonged - in the history of dishonor and war crimes.

However, as a country and people who have suffered huge sacrifices, we cannot be completely satisfied with this verdict. The fact that the trial panel dismissed the charges related to crimes against humanity is a scandalous political maneuver and a direct insult to all the innocent victims.

This legal shortening of the indictment is a cowardly attempt by the international judiciary to minimize the extent of the suffering of the Serb people and to hide in front of an obvious, systematic and monstrous plan to completely ethnically cleanse and obliterate the Serb existence in Kosovo and Metohija.

We see that even the sentences handed down - 25 years for Thaci and Krasniqi, 18 years for Veseli and 13 years for Selimi - although high, are not and never can be commensurate with the pain of the families who are still searching for the bones of their fathers, brothers, and children.

This verdict cannot bring back the innocent victims, nor can it heal the wounds of our people, but it is a historical reminder for Pristina and their foreign sponsors that a false state (Kosovo) cannot be built on the mass graves of murdered Serbs.

The Republic of Serbia, led by its state leadership, will proudly and with its head held high continue the fight for law, justice and the truth about the suffering of our people.

We will never forget any place of suffering of the Serb people and we will never stop insisting on the full responsibility of all those who bloodied their hands in our holy land."

(Telegraf.rs)