Ex-KLA Officials Deny Knowing of 1998 Killings

Fatmir Limaj leaving Palace of Justice in Kosovo. Photo: BIRN, Adhe Mula

The trial has continued this week before the Gjakova/Djakovica Basic Court of former KLA commander and current Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Fatmir Limaj.

Limaj is accused of failing to prevent the killing of two civilians, Ramiz Hoxha and Selman Binishi, in 1998.

The prosecution questioned former key figures in the KLA in relation to a statement published by the newspaper Zeri i Kosoves on November 1998, issued by the Directorate of KLA Military Police, which read that Hoxha and Binish were executed as collaborators with the Serbian regime then ruling Kosovo.

This prosecution’s evidence was contested by the defence, which said the prosecution did not have the original copy of the alleged KLA statement but was only using articles published in newspapers.

Azem Syla, former general commander of the KLA, who took the stand on Tuesday, said he was outside Kosovo for most of the time concerned and only vaguely remembered the event.

“I don’t remember when the KLA Directorate of Military Police was founded,” Syla told the court, adding that he also does not know who headed the KLA Military Police at that time.

Sokol Dobruna, another former top KLA official, said he did not hear about the killing of the two civilians, as he was in another area.

“At that time, I was in the Operative Zone of Dukagjini, so I did not hear about the killing of these two civilians,” Dobruna told the court.

Another witness from the former KLA leadership, Rexhep Selimi, said the statement used by prosecution could not be correct.

“I can confirm that on October 30 1998, a date mentioned in this statement … the directorate of the Military Police [within the KLA] did not exist,” Selimi said.

Limaj is charged with not taking necessary measures to prevent the killing of the two civilians while he was KLA commander in October 1998.

The indictment says Limaj saw the bodies of the victims and was aware of the crime. “He intentionally failed to take measures to discover the perpetrators of this crime, and after November 1998, when he was appointed as the director of military police at KLA headquarters, the case was never sent to the relevant authorities for prosecution,” prosecutor Drita Hajdari said.

Hoxha, from Bellanica, and Binishi, from Banja, Limaj’s birthplace, were seized on October 2, 1998 near the mosque in Bellanica and executed near the village of Kravasari, some four kilometres away.

This week the court heard also the testimony of Muhamed Hoxha, one of last persons who met Binishi.

Hoxha told court that two persons wearing masks entered his shop and took Binishi away with them.

“Two persons entered the shop wearing black clothes and masks … one of them was wearing a gas mask; I don’t remember if they had any logo or any identifying sign,” Hoxha told the court.

The trial against Limaj started in January last year.