Rama Says in Pristina Thaci’s Indictment ‘Shameful Stain of 21st Century” World Justice

TIRANA – Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama met on Monday with the Chairman of the Social Democratic Initiative (SDI) of Kosovo, Fatmir Limaj during a two-day visit to Kosovo, where he will hold meetings with several high officials in the country.

Rama is expected to meet with Parliament Speaker Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, DP leader Kadri Veseli and President Thaci. On Tuesday, he is  expected to hold a meeting with former Prime Minister Albin Kurti, followed by a press conference later in the day.

“We discussed current developments, with special emphasis on the possibility of coordinating the actions we need to take as a political spectrum in Kosovo after the situation created in our country,” said Limaj after meeting Rama.

SDI head said that it is the responsibility of the leaders of Kosovo’s political forces and state institutions to put aside their differences and act with great composure in the interest of the country. “Kosovo must not lose its orientation and we must respond carefully to the situation, and at the same time I am convinced that we will emerge stronger from this situation,” said Limaj.

After arriving in Pristina, Rama tweeted that the indictment was a “shameful stain of 21st century” world justice.

Rama’s two-day visit comes after Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci and DP leader Kadri Veseli were indicted on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges by the Special Prosecutor’s Office in the Hague.

After the indictment was announced, a planned meeting between the Kosovar president and his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, at the White House was postponed. The meeting, which had been scheduled to take place on June 27, was aimed at kickstarting suspended talks on normalizing relations between the two neighbors.

During a plenary session of Parliament last week, Rama described the indictment as a “selective, experimental international justice.” Kosovo Albanians, PM Rama said during Thursday’s plenary session, have been under investigation for 21 years, while on the other hand no Serb has been investigated for war crimes in Kosovo.

Rama also said that the Hague has been dealing with senior KLA leaders for 21 years now, where in the investigations it has acquitted them several times only to file indictments once again. He said that this raises a question of whether this is related to a fair international justice or a misuse of Kosovo’s cooperation with the international community.