During the 1990s the KLA was widely considered as a terrorist organization, including by the US State Department.
Experts believe that, in theory, the Hague-based Special Tribunal dealing with war crimes committed by former Kosovo Liberation Army members, could open a criminal case against Berisha.
In 1997, when Berisha was president, hundreds of thousands of firearms, millions of rounds of ammunition, a great number of mortars and tons of explosives were allegedly stolen from Albanian arsenals.
“And now Sali Ram Berisha says that was not a break-in and that he had simply decided to ‘throw the doors open’ to arm KLA fighters,” Borivoje Borovic told Sputnik Serbia.
“I opened the military depots to provide arms to the KLA,” Berisha said in a nationally televised interview.
“Incidentally, it was exactly when the KLA members launched their first major assault on Yugoslav army and police units in Kosovо,” Borovic added.
Stevan Djurovic, the chief of Serbian counterintelligence in Kosovo during the 1999 NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, said that most of the KLA training camps were located on the territory of neighboring Albania.
He added that Berisha organized financing for the 15 KLA training centers in Albania and the transfer of terrorists to Kosovo.
“Can we bring Berisha to justice? Serbia and other countries can. The problem is, however, that there were French, German, US and Swiss instructors working at those training camps. Some of the terrorists traveled to Arab countries to hone their skills, that’s why I don’t expect any international reaction to what Berisha said,” Stevan Djurovic noted.
The KLA was taken off the US list of terrorist organizations in 1998 when US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke appeared in a video engaged in a friendly chat with a group of armed KLA members.
The Kosovo War between the ethnically Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army and Yugoslavia, then consisting of Serbia and Montenegro, flared up in 1999.
The conflict led to the NATO bombing of Serb forces.
Following NATO’s 78-day air campaign the Kosovo Force (KFOR) was established to support peace in the area, demilitarize the Kosovo Liberation Army, support the international humanitarian effort and coordinate with the international civil presence.
Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence in 2008 and is recognized by over 100 UN member states. Serbia, as well as Russia, China, Israel, Iran, Spain, Greece and some other countries do not recognize Kosovo’s independence.
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