The facts are clear: SERBIA was the AGGRESSOR; KOSOVA was the VICTIM

Albanians for America receives today’s judgment by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague against the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army with deep concern and dismay.

We disagree with this judgment and consider it unjust toward those who fought for Kosovo’s freedom.

For Albanians for America, one thing must remain clear: the struggle of the Kosovo Liberation Army was a struggle for freedom and for the protection of the people of Kosovo. The KLA emerged under the conditions of a repressive and violent Serbian regime, when Kosovo Albanians faced killings, expulsions, destruction, and grave crimes. This historical truth cannot be undone.

This judgment must not be turned into a judgment of a people’s struggle for freedom, nor should it create a historical or moral equivalence between Kosovo’s liberation struggle and the Serbian state apparatus, which perpetrated violence and crimes against the civilian population.

The facts are clear: SERBIA was the AGGRESSOR; KOSOVA was the VICTIM.

AFA stands with the KLA, with the just struggle of the people of Kosovo for freedom, and with the people of Kosovo.

Kosovo was not the aggressor in the 1998–1999 war. It was a people fighting to survive and to win its freedom from repression.

Today’s judgment is not the final word in the legal process. It is a first-instance judgment and, under the procedures of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the parties have the right to appeal before the Court of Appeals Panel. Therefore, the judicial process has not yet concluded.

Albanians for America will continue to defend the historical truth of Kosovo’s struggle, the right of the Albanian people to freedom and dignity, and the strategic partnership between Kosovo and the United States of America.

The KLA fought for Kosovo’s freedom.

Kosovo’s freedom is the right of its people, and that right cannot be put on trial.