Bujovi: Nowhere have I declared that the KLA killed the LDK people

Bujov, said days ago in an interview for the Rubik show at Kosovovision, that the Liberation Army war and generally armed resistance in Kosovo was fair, but that every war has unclean elements. He also cited the killings of 102 Democratic League of Kosovo activists and his statements prompted strong reactions and objections, including Parliament Speaker Kadri Veselin, who told Voice of America that such statements do not help clarify historical truth.

Voice of America: Mr. Buyov, in recent days you have faced grave charges by senior state officials, following several statements concerning the purity of the Kosovo Liberation Army's war. How do you view these reactions?

Yusuf Bujowi: But these have been cut off and deliberately created an atmosphere of lynching from a slightly wider context. Those who followed the show “Rubikon” (Kohavision), the trigger has been the completion of the book “Kosovo” Volume six, seven and eight, including the period of statehood, separately problems from establishing international protectorate until the declaration of independence, means NATO's entry in June 1999 to February 17th 2008. The issue of statehood and the problems that have been, however, and yet the transitional time has been passed by murder, criminality and others, means that the vacuum that UNMIK has had to meet by establishing democratic institutions has been met by criminal groups and others, objectively praised by all the world institutions that has been a very difficult time for Kosovo and I rely on books and book data. At that time we have numerous murders, 102 are activists of the Democratic League of Kosovo, and 92 are of the Kosovo Liberation Army. There are 603 Kosovo citizens for whom, in part or nothing, justice has given no answer. I, as a writer and historian, have included them in my book, and I am critical of it, and in my book, I also place a guilt on UNMIK and separately EULEX, which has not only solved these cases, but also co-operated with certain criminal structures. That was it. Nowhere have I declared that the Kosovo Liberation Army is hosting this process. On the contrary, the Kosovo Liberation Army has completed its mission in June 1999, sometime in September or October, it has been demilitarised in accordance with the agreement (Michael) Jackson- (Hashim) Thaci and there has started another KSF mission where there are also numerous problems where many KSF members are involved in certain criminal, terrorist and other acts, but it is another chapter. Nowhere have I said that Democratic League of Kosovo activists have been killed by the Kosovo Liberation Army. It is cut off from context, a portal, “Expressi” has immediately published the next day that it was an unclean war and that I characterised it and that it started the whole lynching campaign.

Voice of America: Do you feel threatened by these reactions and links?

Yusuf Bujowi: To me, the threats are two types. Threats stemming from the lynching atmosphere mean by militants from separate parties and different clientelemism that the Democratic Party of Kosovo oversees. Separately from a part of the fake veterans who, too, are dependent on them and also, I feel threatened by the state institutions themselves. This first has reason because the deputy chairman of the Democratic Party of Kosovo has come out with a scandalous statement. He's kind of saying why we didn't hang out during the war with Bujovin and Buzovism. He somehow admits that he was involved in political killings and that those murders would have to be further involved. I somehow expected the government to distance itself from such a deputy prime minister. It's not distanced, rather, we have Haradinaj's statement (Ramush) in a way that requires me to supposedly clarify, as if I am his prosecutor or employee. I'm a historian and these are books and he can look at books and he doesn't need to ask me such questions. Even worse and further, I have expected this campaign to be fed by state levels and veterans to be stopped in some way. I've been expecting the head of the Parliament (Cade Veselin) in Washington to at least apologize and somehow defend my free speech because the speaker of parliament was a guest in Washington, the United States of America. The U.S. is the temple of freedom and democracy, and about twenty years ago we have been all over our spectrum that the United States has helped our statehood and our movement, where others have been told you will be helped by the United States of America if you pledge a free and democratic society, what our commitment really has been. Meanwhile, twenty years later the parliamentary chief goes there, and instead of apologizing, he attacks even harder a creator, shows that he is not a supporter of free speech, he is not a supporter of scientific thought, and in some way it is a huge concern for me, because he takes over the burden of the state, at this point, means after 20 years of freedom, the state of Kosovo lynchon to its creators, threatens the creators, threatens historians. I wrote 50 books, I wrote the history of Kosovo. Many of my works are translated into the United States and there I hold lectures from time to time, and it is meaningless how a topparliamentary goes to the US and seeks Kosovo's partnership with the United States, but forgets that partnership requires free speech and democracy while he does the opposite there.

Voice of America: Mr. Bujov, why have you chosen to make public accusations instead of addressing the institutions of justice in these cases?

Yusuf Bujowi: I didn't make public charges, I talked about the book. The show's been dedicated to the book, and the other is that it's misinterpreted. As a historian, I've put it all down and in book six and seven “Kosovo” I speak there with relevant global sources and no accusations I've made, I've just shown the aspect as a historian, I've handled it, it means one aspect of all of it is also the problems that I've been telling our statehood, those eight years, organized crime, other political crimes where unfortunately many of the current governments are part of the organized group and the United States itself, and the most important European institutions are calling attention to Kosovo that politics is constantly involved by organised crime and not by chance that the recent parliament and that the government of Kosovo show that there are also great powers of mind, but that I am warned by intellectual phenomena. Intellectuals are responsible not only for what they say and should say, but for what should be said and not said. Therefore have I defended the cause of liberty, the cause of free speech. It will continue in the meantime, which I remember that both the United States and the Western factor will also be able to defend free speech and free cause, because that's why it has been exiled.

Voice of America: Mr. Do you have a complaint?

Yusuf Bujowi: No, absolutely not. I'm not making any complaint. I'm a writer, a historian, and they're my books. People can manipulate, portals and different parties, political forces that objectively have done great damage to this country and will, however, also face political responsibility. I'll keep working. The only thing that has been disturbing to me has been that the state of Kosovo is involved in a lynching atmosphere against a creator who speaks the word as he thinks and they all write in books and I remember that books are the greatest asset. They should have valued a political and state class rather than rise up against them.