PRISTINA: Thousands of Kosovo war veterans staged a protest rally Thursday against a war crimes court in The Hague that they accused of “distorting history” over its prosecution of former guerilla leaders.
Chanting the Kosovo Liberation Army name and waving flags bearing the symbols of ethnic Albanian guerrillas, protesters filled a central square in Pristina and streets around the government headquarters.
“The special court is biased, anti-KLA and anti-Kosovo,” Hysni Gucati, head of the veterans organization, told the crowd.
“The court has deviated from its mission and is distorting history,” he said.
Several ex-military figures, including former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, are being prosecuted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during and after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Serbian forces.
