The former fighter of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Adnan Hyseni, reacted after today’s decision of the Specialized Chambers of Kosovo in The Hague against the former leaders of the KLA, sentencing them to a total of 81 years in prison.
Hyseni said that he experienced the decision with pain, connecting it with his experience as a former KLA fighter and with his family’s history.
“I think that as a soldier of the Kosovo Liberation Army, but also as an Albanian, in a personal aspect it seems to me a big blow. But I think that above the personal aspect it is a blow in the national aspect, because the Kosovo Liberation Army was born from the Albanian nation, was empowered by the Albanian nation, fought for the rights of the Albanian nation and achieved the goal of liberating Dardania. So, it was a heavy national blow, not just a personal one,” he said.
Speaking about the reasons that, according to him, pushed young Albanians to join the KLA, Hyseni mentioned the repression and discrimination against Albanians in the period of Yugoslavia and during the years before the war.
“We Albanians from Dardania, part of the Kosovo Liberation Army, were forced after many injustices since the time of Yugoslavia, where our Albanians were killed just because they were Albanians within the Yugoslav army. Then political persecutions, imprisonment of patriots, expulsion from school, poisoning, persecution, then various murders of Albanians everywhere. We were forced to become part of the Liberation Army of Kosovo for our basic rights, such as language, education, employment and many other things that kept us under a fascist state like Serbia”, he said.
Hyseni said that at the time he joined the war, he was only 19 years old. He also remembered the losses of his family and fellow soldiers during the war.
“I was only 19 years old. I wanted to have this today as well, we are close to the national patriots. Those moments today were… we came back a lot, because a large part of the KLA soldiers were also part of the wars and having the opportunity to be a part, we created and had trauma during the war because of the different scenes of the massacres”, said Hyseni.
He said that, despite the pain, the memories of that period remain connected with pride for the decision they made at that time. Asked what the KLA represents to him and what it would say to a young person who has not lived through the war, Hyseni described it as a legacy of generations.
“It is life itself. It is the legacy of the generations, it is the light that we see, it is the air that we breathe, it is the future, it is the present, it is definitely a sacrifice and it is a great responsibility, it is a heavy burden, because we must protect it like the eyes of the forehead. As for my comrades, I bring them a message: oh today, oh never. You can have different political opinions, we can have different human opinions, let’s come together for the trust, protect it KLA”, he said.
