Dacic: Hague ruling confirms so-called "KLA" was criminal, terrorist organisation

BELGRADE - Serbia's caretaker Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Wednesday a Hague-based court's conviction of four former leaders of the so-called "Kosovo Liberation Army" was a clear, albeit belated confirmation of what Serbia and the Serbs had been saying aloud for more than a quarter of a century - that the so-called "KLA" had been a criminal and terrorist organisation.

"This is legal proof that its highest-ranking political and military leaders are personally responsible for atrocities, murders, kidnappings and brutal torture of our people in Kosovo-Metohija," Dacic posted on his Instagram account.

Before the eyes of the international public, the ruling finally shattered the false narrative about "national heroes" and a "just liberation struggle," which had been built for decades, Dacic added.

"Today, those who have been hiding behind political offices have been officially and permanently consigned to where they have always belonged - the history of dishonour and war crimes. However, as a state and a nation that has suffered enormous casualties, we cannot be entirely satisfied with this ruling. The fact that the trial chamber dismissed counts of the indictment that have to do with crimes against humanity represents a scandalous political manoeuvre and a direct insult to all innocent victims," Dacic noted.

He added that a shortening of the indictment had been a cowardly attempt by the international judiciary to downplay the scale of the plight of Serbs and to ignore an evident, systematic and monstrous plan of complete ethnic cleansing and eradication of Serb presence in Kosovo-Metohija.

In spite of their severity, the sentences for the four are not and can never be proportionate to the pain of families that, even today, continue to search for the remains of their fathers, brothers and children, Dacic noted.

The ruling cannot bring back innocent victims and cannot heal the wounds of the Serbs, but represents a historic warning to Pristina and its international sponsors that a false state cannot be built on mass graves of slain Serbs, he added.

"Led by its top state officials, the Republic of Serbia will continue, proudly and with its head held high, to fight for law, justice and the truth about the plight of our people," Dacic noted.

"We will never stop insisting on full accountability of all who have bloodied their hands on our holy land," he concluded.

Earlier in the day, in a first-instance ruling, the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers sentenced Hasim Taci, Kadri Veseli, Redzep Selimi and Jakup Krasnici to a total of 81 years in prison for war crimes.