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Former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Fatmir Sopi, who is testifying at the trial of Salih Mustafa in The Hague, said that no one was mistreated in the houses in Zllash where KLA soldiers stayed.
He said that Salih Mustafa did not treat anyone cruelly and that he did not hear anything like that about his former comrade.
On the second day of his testimony before the Kosovo Specialized Chambers in The Hague, Sopi said that during the war, the political orientation of KLA soldiers was never an obstacle.
“It could never have happened. I know him even before the war, I knew him as a former political prisoner and someone who has experienced the most inhuman tortures by the Serbian government and I never believe that he can use violence against anyone for any reason and in any case[…] “I have never heard anything like this in my life about my comrade Mr. Salih Mustafa”, said Sopi.
Sopi said that the aim of the KLA war was only the liberation of the country from Serbian forces.
“Under no circumstances and in no form was the political orientation of the KLA soldier an obstacle, the goal of the war was the liberation of the country, while we were not interested in political convictions at that time,” he said.
Sopi answered the questions of Salih Mustafa’s defense lawyer, Julius Von Bone, to whom he told that the KLA was not a regular army and therefore did not have uniforms for all soldiers.
But he added that the KLA uniform was misused by Serbian paramilitary forces.
“The KLA uniform in many cases has been misused, it has been misused especially by the Serbian paramilitary and military forces who under the KLA uniform have carried out horrific massacres. I am mentioning only one case that I have in mind when members of Serb units in KLA uniform in Peja entered a youth bar and killed all those members of their own nation, Serb members, in a way to blame the KLA and the international community to condemn it as a terrorist organization because it is committing terror, crimes. “As for the uniform we wore, we were not completely complete”, said Sopi.
During his testimony, Sopi said that KLA soldiers guarded the buildings where KLA headquarters or units were located and that they were asked to identify or introduce themselves to unknown persons who could enter.
When asked about the period of April 1999. Sopi said that neither he nor Salih Mustafa could stay in one place as according to him they had to deal with positioning and preparations for combat operations.
He said he did not remember Mustafa sending medical staff to Zllash in April 1999.
Sopi said that since April 7, 1999 he has been engaged in the duty of commander of combat operations in the Prapashtica area and that until the second offensive on April 18, he rarely returned to the village of Zllash.
Fatmir Sopi is the 11th witness who is being heard in the trial against Salih Mustafa and the hearing is open to the public.
He said that he had joined the KLA since its inception in 1998 and has acted as an organizer in the Gollak region, while today he is the chairman of the Organization of KLA War Veterans in Pristina.
The trial, which began on September 15, 2021, is the first in the Kosovo Specialized Chambers in The Hague, and so far ten protected witnesses of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office have been heard.
The indictment against Mustafa, who is the first detainee by the Special Forces, was confirmed on June 12, 2020, while he was arrested on September 24 last year, on charges of war crimes.
He is being held in the detention center in The Hague, while in his statement before the court, Salih Mustafa has pleaded not guilty./KosovaPress/
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