Wesley Clark within the courtroom on Tuesday, November 18, 2025. Picture: Kosovo Specialist Chambers/Livestream.
In his two-day testimony on the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Common Wesley Clark, the previous NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, mentioned the Kosovo Liberation Military, KLA, was the response of ethnic Albanians to greater than a decade of oppression by the Serbian regime, and denied it dedicated ethnic cleaning in opposition to native Serbs after the conflict ended.
“I’ve no proof or proof that the KLA was behind this [violence against Serbs], however I’ve indications that show the other,” Clark mentioned on Tuesday.
He was responding to a query about his assertion from 1999, when he additionally instructed an Albanian-language publication, Shekulli, that there was no proof that the KLA had dedicated ethnic cleaning of ethnic Serbs.
As NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, Clark commanded the Western alliance’s marketing campaign of air strikes in 1999 geared toward forcing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to finish his violent repression of Kosovo Albanians.
Prosecutor Matthew Halling requested Clark to clarify whether or not the acts of the KLA on the time have been seen as terrorist acts by the worldwide group. Clark acknowledged that, on the time, the KLA was known as a terrorist organisation – however insisted that in actuality it was a liberation motion.
Clark defined that Kosovo had been an autonomous entity inside Serbia within the former Yugoslavia since 1974. Nevertheless, in 1989, Serbian President Slobodan “Milosevic eliminated [its autonomy]. Some individuals who have been collectively known as terrorists grew to become the liberators of the folks, they grew to become the collective protectors of their very own folks.
“I wish to clarify that at some extent when folks combat in opposition to oppression, they go from being terrorists to being freedom fighters, and at a sure level, world opinion and world consensus involves the conclusion that individuals are entitled to resist the strain of conflict,” Clark mentioned.
On Monday, Clark additionally instructed the courtroom that ethnic Albanians in Kosovo had confronted many years of oppression previous to the conflict, explaining that “these males who fought again have been very impartial minded. These have been native individuals who risked their lives to face up in opposition to oppression” and weren’t susceptible to accepting orders. He mentioned the KLA didn’t have a correct military command construction just like Western militaries.
On Tuesday, he claimed that the post-war violence and acts of revenge occurred amongst neighbours, saying that the KLA didn’t maintain duty for them. He mentioned many individuals have been very resentful.
On the finish of his testimony, Clark highlighted that he has adopted the trial and that “I stand by my earlier conviction that Hashim Thaci will not be liable for what occurred in Kosovo. He’s not liable for particular person acts of violence or revenge.”
On Monday, he mentioned Thaci was not a navy commander and “it was fairly clear that he wasn’t in cost.”
Thaci and his co-defendants Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi and Kadri Veseli, are accused of getting particular person and command duty for crimes dedicated in opposition to prisoners held at KLA detention services in Kosovo and in neighbouring Albania, together with 102 murders. The crimes have been allegedly dedicated throughout and simply after the conflict in 1998 and 1999.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers are a part of Kosovo’s justice system however are primarily based in The Hague with a world workers to make sure honest proceedings after witness intimidation issues in earlier KLA-related instances. Many prosecution witnesses have testified behind closed doorways to guard their identities as a result of fears of reprisals, however this has led to allegations of an absence of transparency. Even Clark’s testimony went into non-public session a number of occasions because it began on Monday.
The so-called particular courtroom is broadly criticised by ethnic Albanians who take into account it ethnically biased and in opposition to what’s broadly accepted as a simply conflict of the KLA. Prosecutors have insisted that the KLA will not be on trial, regardless of the notion. Nonetheless, the KLA Conflict Veterans’ Organisation has staged 4 mass protests throughout Europe in assist of the ex-KLA leaders on trial, with the newest on Sunday in Strasbourg, after earlier protests in Pristina, The Hague and Tirana.
