ZAKHAROVA: KLA WAS GENUINE GANG, ITS LEADERS MUST BE PUNISHED TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW

MOSCOW, SEPTEMBER 22 /SRNA/ — The terrorist KLA was a genuine gang, thus its leaders must be justly punished to the full extent of the law for their terrible crimes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

She was commenting on the verdicts in the trial of former KLA leaders, stating that the group was a "genuine gang" whose activities amounted to "terrorist attacks against representatives of the legitimate Yugoslav authorities and crimes against the indigenous Serb population of the province". "Numerous civilians were killed at the hands of KLA militants, including many Albanians who did not demonstrate sufficient loyalty to the project of so-called Kosovo independence," Zakharova stressed. She recalled that former president of the provisional institutions in Priština, Hashim Thaçi, and his accomolices were handed down prison sentences ranging from 13 to 25 years. "The very fact that they were found guilty of war crimes, including torture and murder, is certainly commendable. For the Serb people, upon whom the West keeps trying to place all responsibility for the tragic events accompanying the breakup of Yugoslavia, this is another refutation of the collective guilt unjustly imposed on the Serbs," Zakharova said. She noted that the court concluded that Thaçi and his associates pursued a common criminal purpose, for which they established an entire network of prisons, where those suspected of disloyalty were forcibly detained and subjected to cruel treatment and torture. "A total of 26 prisoners were killed. It was established that Hashim Thaçi personally participated in the commission of these crimes. It should be recalled that it was precisely by supporting Albanian militants that the West sought to justify NATO's armed aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999. At that time, Hashim Thaçi was surrounded by an aura of a progressive democratic leader in the United States and Europe, serving as the face of the `Kosovo project`. Now that romanticized image has been completely shattered," Zakharova said. Zakharova stressed that it was clear to everyone that NATO’s notorious "humanitarian intervention" relied on genuine criminals. According to her, it is only conditionally possible to speak of justice being restored, while the verdict was obviously long overdue and raises numerous questions. Zakharova said that after six years, the examination of thousands of pieces of evidence and the questioning of hundreds of witnesses, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers still lacked the courage and responsibility to deliver the rigorous justice that is so necessary in this case, RT Balkan reports. "The KLA leaders' involvement in crimes against humanity was deemed unproven, reliable information about their organisation of illegal human-organ trafficking was ignored, and crimes against Serbs after June 1999, including the barbaric March 2004 pogrom, were left `in brackets`. The very nature of the KLA - criminal at its core, is still awaiting an appropriate legal assessment," Zakharova said. She stressed it was clear that "unsuccessful attempts to cleanse the project of the Kosovo quasi-state of its bloody legacy" would continue, and that the case would only be resolved after the appeals proceedings were completed. "As the poor practice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has shown, even notorious war criminals can be completely acquitted of the charges on appeal. Just consider the scandalous acquittal of Croatian General Ante Gotovina, a participant in the vile Operation Storm, who had previously been convicted of the ethnic cleansing and mass killings of Serbs in Croatia. We proceed from the premise that Kosovo Albanian militants must ultimately be justly punished to the full extent of the law for their heinous crimes. Selectivity and the politicization of justice are unacceptable," Zakharova concluded.