KLA veteran: 'Life is hard in Kosovo but we are free.'

DW News · Feb 22, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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Haxhimusa's house is located in the mountain village of Doganaj in the southeast of Kosovo. It is a two-story family home with a garden with old fruit trees in front and fields behind. The winter sun shines brightly onto the facade and windows. It is warm in the living room. On the table are photos from another time: young men in uniform, barely older than 20, with serious expressions on their faces. Haxhimusa runs his fingers over one of the pictures. "That was us," he says quietly. The 58-year-old ethnic Albanian was once a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that fought against the Serbian police and the Yugoslav Army in the Kosovo War at the end of the 1990s. But these days he leads a quiet life with his family. Today, he is sitting on the sofa next to his wife Vjollca. His daughters Zana and Gresa come into the room from time to time, as does his son-in-law Fisnik. As a young man, Haxhimusa was jailed after being accused of being a terrorist. During Slobodan Milesovic's dictatorship, he lived on the margins of society like most ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. And in 1998, he joined the KLA.Gezim Haxhimusa joined the KLA after a massacre of dozens of ethnic Albanians Image: Vjosa Cerkini/DW Celebrating Kosovar independence Every February, this time comes back to life for him. Kosovo declared its independence on February 17 in 2008 and this was what Haxhimusa fought for, but this year everything is different. This month, the closing arguments in a war crimes case against several KLA leaders were heard at a special court in The Hague. The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were set up in the Netherlands in 2015 under pressure from the European Union but in Kosovo, the court is widely criticized by many Kosovars as a form of colonial justice. Earlier in February, prosecutors called for 45 years' imprisonment each for four former KLA leaders — Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi — accused of persecution, murder, torture and forced disappearances. For Haxhimusa, the entire struggle for independence and the whole of Kosovo is on trial. "This court is unjust; it should not exist at all," he says. "We were defending ourselves back then. The war crimes cases against Ramush Haradinaj, Fatmir Limaj and others were already heard in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and they were acquitted. Despite this, they are all being unjustly detained here without any new evidence."Accused of terrorism and jailed He gets very emotional when he tells his own story. Like all men, he had to do compulsory military service in Yugoslavia. He had only been a recruit for a few months when he was arrested in 1987. His "crime" was that he had spoken to other ethnic Albanians about not wanting to fight against his own people. He was sentenced to five years in jail. "We were just talking," he says. "We didn't do anything." He spent three years in a prison in Foca, in the southeast of what was then Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the constituent republics of Yugoslavia. By the time he was released, he says, the situation in Yugoslavia had deteriorated further and there was propaganda, mistrust and pressure. "They called us terrorists long before the UCK (the Albanian acronym for the KLA) even existed." He resumed his mechanical engineering studies and became involved with the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo. He was also in Germany for one year as a refugee but then returned to Kosovo.Gezim Haxhimusa does not regret risking his life for the independence of Kosovo even if he had limited weapons at his disposal Image: Vjosa Cerkini/DW Prekaz massacre In March 1998, he heard that there had been a massacre in Prekaz, a village northwest of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. A special unit of the Serbian police had murdered 58 people, including the local KLA leader Adem Jashari, his brother and several other relatives. This was a turning point and from then on the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo united themselves in the armed struggle against Serbia, which was also condemned by the international community. It is also what triggered Haxhimusa's decision to join the KLA. "I cried. After that, there was no other way." Haxhimusa was one of the first to volunteer from the region of Nerodime, where his village lies. There were 35 fighters to begin with, 30 men and 5 women, many not older than 20. He had an old Kalashnikov, 90 rounds of ammunition and two hand grenades. "90 bullets against an entire army." Eventually, the group of volunteers grew into a force of almost 1,000. "We had little food and ammunition. We were fighting against the Yugoslav Army. And it was fighting against the whole population." When the war ended, Haxhimusa stood on a makeshift stage in the town of Ferizaj, a few kilometers from his village. People had climbed onto rooftops, and there were US soldiers from the NATO peacekeeping force KFOR there. This moment justified everything he and his comrades had fought for. After he was demobilized in September 1999, he worked with the Kosovar government and also became a city councilor in Ferizaj. When his dream came true on February 17, 2008 and Kosovo declared its independence, he first went out on the streets of Pristina and then he celebrated with his family in Ferizaj. "There was a lot of euphoria. Our ideal back then was freedom above all. We thought that everything would start from scratch again." But not everything was as he had hoped. Kosovo was a state without a government. Everything had to be rebuilt and that took much longer than expected. There was nepotism, unemployment and many people left. Only in 2024 were Kosovars allowed to travel to the European Union without a visa. For Haxhimusa, the EU tends to lean towards Serbia in its role in the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo. But he has no regrets: "Life is hard in Kosovo but we are free." This year on February 9, he experienced a shock when the prosecutors in The Hague requested a total of 180 years in jail for four former KLA leaders. "Since that day, I've been taking pills for high blood pressure," he says.KLA leader Hashim Thaci in The Hague in 2023Image: Koen van Weel/REUTERS On February 17, Haxhimusa and his wife drove from Ferizaj to Pristina wearing black T-shirts that bore the words "Freedom has a name," a slogan that is primarily associated with Adem Jashari who is considered a martyr, under their jackets. Tens of thousands celebrated Kosovar independence in the capital and at the same time protested against the trial in The Hague. Many bore flags and had tears in their eyes. "It's wonderful to be here and see the whole population out on the streets," said Haxhimusa happily. "We're celebrating, but we're also protesting. Because without our leaders, who are on trial in The Hague, there is something missing." This article was translated from German. Explainer: What are the Kosovo Specialist Chambers?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video