A group of civil society organizations in Kosovo have sent a letter to Amnesty International asking it to revise and clarify its statement on the first-instance judgment against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.
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They say the statement, dated September 16, 2026, does not fully present the context of victims of the war in Kosovo because it does not mention crimes committed by Serbian forces or the need for accountability for those crimes.
In their letter, the organizations stress that Amnesty International should provide sufficient information so that people unfamiliar with the history of the conflict in Kosovo can understand accurately what happened.
Their main concern relates to the part of the statement saying the convictions “give hope to thousands of victims of the war in Kosovo,” while the rest of the text focuses mainly on the judicial proceedings against the four defendants.
The organizations say that although the statement refers to the suffering of war victims in general, it provides no information about crimes committed by Serbian forces. In their view, this creates an incomplete picture of the conflict’s history.
They explain that they understand how a court ruling could give hope to victims awaiting justice in other cases. However, they ask for a clear distinction between this general hope and the specific responsibility examined in the proceedings against Thaçi, Veseli, Selimi and Krasniqi.
Without such a distinction, they say, readers unfamiliar with the conflict may get the impression that all victims of the war in Kosovo are connected to the crimes addressed in this particular judgment.
The organizations argue that the figures for criminal offenses included in the background section do not resolve this problem either. According to the letter, those figures show only the scale of the court case; they do not explain the broader victimization during the war or distinguish between different perpetrators.
The letter says that mentioning the acquittals on crimes against humanity charges and the possibility of an appeal, although necessary, relates to the procedural outcome and not to the absence of historical context.
According to the Kosovo Memory Book database, compiled jointly by the Humanitarian Law Center and the Humanitarian Law Center Kosovo, a total of 13,517 people killed or missing in connection with the war in Kosovo between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2000, had been recorded by November 7, 2014.
Of that total, 10,792 were Albanians, 2,197 were Serbs, and 528 belonged to Roma, Bosniak and other communities. The data include civilians and members of armed forces.
The organizations emphasize that these figures document losses during the conflict and the period that followed, but do not establish responsibility attributable to the four defendants. Nor do they reflect all the harm suffered by survivors.
In addition, based on data collected by the same organizations, Serbian forces killed 6,872 Albanian civilians in Kosovo between March 20 and June 14, 1999.
According to the letter, this documented scale of civilian killings is an essential part of the context when discussing the overall number of victims of the war in Kosovo and their ongoing demands for justice.
The organizations also stress that, 27 years later, no senior commander of the VJ or MUP has been prosecuted in Serbia for the operations during which thousands of civilians were killed.
They say this is the case despite thousands of facts established in ICTY judgments about the actions of VJ and MUP units, as well as the links between those units and command structures led by generals who were ultimately convicted.
The signatories acknowledge that a statement about an individual judgment cannot describe the entire history of the war. However, when Amnesty International refers to the broader population of victims of the war in Kosovo, it should provide enough context to present that history responsibly.
In their view, the absence of any reference to crimes by Serbian forces excludes the experiences of the victims of those crimes, even though the statement draws on the suffering of victims in Kosovo as a whole.
The organizations call for responsibility to be linked at all times to the specific perpetrators, acts and findings of a judicial proceeding. They say the conflict’s broader history should not be conveyed through only one case, and that justice for victims who are not part of this trial should remain visible.
For this reason, they ask Amnesty International to amend its statement to make clear the distinction between victims covered by the Thaçi et al. case and the overall population of victims of the war in Kosovo.
The organizations also ask that the statement include brief context on crimes committed by Serbian forces and the ongoing need for those responsible to be held accountable. If the reference to thousands of victims is intended to express the broader hope that criminal accountability can bring, this should be stated clearly.
“Our request stems from a commitment to truth, justice and reparation for all victims, regardless of their ethnicity or the identity of those responsible. We support fair trials, respect for the right to appeal, and public communication that accurately presents both judicial findings and the historical context in which they were issued,” the letter says.
The organizations also request a written response from Amnesty International explaining how it will address these concerns.
The letter was signed by the Prishtina Institute for Political Studies (PIPS), Kosovo Law Institute (KLI), Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF), Kosova Democratic Institute / Transparency International Kosova, Kosovo Advocacy and Development Centre (KADC), FOL Movement, Qendra për Informim, Kritikë dhe Aksion (QIKA), The Kosovar Organization for Talent and Education (TOKA), Schüler Helfen Leben Kosova, Fourth Wave, Ramadan Ilazi – Head of Research at Kosovo Centre for Security Studies (KCSS), Network of NGOs AVONET and YES NGO.
