Citizens’ protest, Kastrati: A message to the Government that we must not sleep, there are no concrete actions

General Kadri Kastrati has said that the protests being held in Pristina for 16 straight days after the verdict of the Specialist Chambers in The Hague are a clear signal for Kosovo’s institutions.

Speaking on TV Dukagjini, Kastrati declared that the protests show citizens’ dissatisfaction with the way the issue of the former KLA leaders in The Hague has been treated.

“This is a clear signal that the people of Kosovo, whenever they have seen injustice, whenever they have seen that they are being treated in an unjust way, in an unlawful way and not equally with other peoples, and when an extraordinarily great injustice is done, as was the verdict for the four leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, with one of them given 81 years in prison,” Kastrati said.

He assessed that an important part of the protests is also the youth, including young people born during or after the war.

“Not only those who experienced the war, as I am one of them, but what has made an extraordinarily great impression on me is the youth that was perhaps born during the war and after the war. It is that main core that is expressing dissatisfaction and has been protesting for 16 days in a row,” he said.

Kastrati said the protests are also conveying a direct message to Kosovo’s institutions and Government.

“I also see a very clear message being given to the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo, being given to the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, that we must not sleep as we have slept for five years and more,” he declared.

Asked whether he considers the governance on this issue to have been asleep, Kastrati answered that he absolutely does.

“Absolutely asleep, because I am not seeing any action that has been taken so far. Declaratively yes, but concrete actions no,” Kastrati said.

According to him, the institutions should have undertaken joint steps immediately after the verdict.

“On the 17th we should have created or formed a National Council, a joint council of all political parties, that would work very strongly towards bringing evidence or counter-evidence to the defence lawyers who are there in The Hague,” he declared.

He also proposed forming a group of political experts which, according to him, would engage in communication with European and world centres.

“Because this court is political, and it is clear that the conviction and the treatment throughout this time of these men who are there has been political, without any facts, without any arguments,” Kastrati declared, as TV Dukagjini reports.