Over revision of history in Kosovo

From: Jethlir Zyberaj

In recent days a debate has been held on the figure of Xhaferor Deva, Albanian politician and patriot of the time of the German Nazi occupation in Kosovo and Albania, which, for a period, has been minister of home affairs in the government of Rexhep Mitrovica. The debate came from the project for the renovation of the house in which he had lived, objects of particular architectural and historical value for the town of Mitrovica, but also for Kosovo. The debate was greatly influenced by the historic Narrativa imposed by communist Yugoslavia and Enver Hoxha's communist regime.

If we leave them, then the bad news begins.

My reaction has to do with certain issues that need to be said, but not talk about Xhafer Devin, because this belongs to historians and not politicians.

In this case, I want to stop by some of the issues that are affecting the way we talk about history and how, we still suffer from a dependence on the historical narativa imposed by Belgrade. I believe more than that, German Ambassador Jörn Rohde, should not be part of a debate that has originality in Belgrade and began by official Serbian propaganda to attack Kosovo and its history. It is not up to diplomats and politicians to take sides with a historical narrative that is not based on facts, but it is ideologically influenced.

I am a powerful supporter of the idea that Xhafer Deva's home will be renovated because it is part of the history of Mitrovica architecture and as such has nothing to do with the policy of the time when Nazi Germany invaded Kosovo and Albania or its owner as politician. This seems to have been in mind when the MKRS has decided on the restoration of this object, and especially the Kosovo Culture Minister, who reacted after the issue opened up. In his reaction, the minister of Culture has had a very principled and professional stance on the issue, for which” it should be applauded for the courage to stand up against the counterfeiting and misusing of history and politicising the restoration of a cultural and architectural heritage project for Kosovo and Mitrovica itself.

Historians or politicians who are influenced by the communist currents in Belgrade and Tirana should not talk about Xhafer Deven. Those who never distanced themselves from the crimes of communism in Kosovo, from the wrong decisions that led to the re-cutment of Kosovo from Serbia and the suffering of hundreds of thousands of Albanian families, hundreds of thousands of violent displaced in Turkey, should not talk about it. February 21st is the anniversary of the murder of Shaban Poluzaku, a native who was killed in defense of the national ideal. In the book “Fadil Hoxha in the first person”, Hoxha had confessed to the murder of Shaban Pollouse and his friends on February 21, 1945. He said when Shaban Polluza was killed, Drenica calmed down!

US General Wesley Clark has confessed his meeting with former Serbian President Milosevic in autumn 1998. From that meeting, in a first interview for months, General Clark brought testimony to what Milosevic had told him.

We know how to deal with these Albanians, these murderers, rapists, criminals like them. He died. So Milosevic.

We've done it before.

Did you? He asked Clarke.

) Yeah, he told her. In 1945.

How are you?

We killed them. We killed them all. ”

The story, written in Pristina, under Yugoslav influence and in Tirana under communist influence, hides many facts, denigron figures, wipes out many others from history, and makes our story flawed. Education of new generations away from these currents that have access to reliable resources will repair this damage to Kosovo for decades.

Xhaferr Deva must be tried for the period that has been active and involved in politics. Of course, he and his government were in cooperation with German Nazism, which had caused the worst suffering in human history, and this cooperation has remained tarnished in his image. But it has to be said since 1912 until Italians and Germans invaded Kosovo, Serbs carried out ethnic cleansing against Albanians, and foreign troops' arrival was seen as release from Serbs for the local population. But Xhafer Deva and Kosovo and Albania were not participants at the time and had no role in the Nazi-run Holocaust. Attempting to include Kosovo in this story is harmful and goes against historical history and facts. Albanians are among the nations that have contributed most to the protection of Jews. Xhaferr Deva, as evidenced by the facts, has refused to hand over to Germans the list of Jews who were hiding and protected by Albanians. This role should be known and not hidden.

The Russians, in Eastern Europe, through the anti-fascist terrave try to rewrite the history of small nations, the same method used by Belgrade. Co-operation with the Nazis in Kosovo cannot be compared to the co-operation of the Baltics, Ukrainians, Hungarians or Romanians with Nazis who helped kill Jews. We should not be ashamed of that period because the fact is that at the European level Xhafer Deva collaborated with the dark side of the time, but at the local level that co-operation was in defense of the Albanian nation, which has sheltered and protected Jews as no other nation during World War II.

That fact was known for the United States, so after LDB concluded, Xhafer Deva was offered asylum, residence, work during his death.

I agree with a German ambassador's argument, and this argument is important for the time we live today. There is no history rewrite! Do not distort the truth”. Today Kosovo is facing a major attack on its very new history, and especially its fight for the liberation and independence of 1997-1999.

The Kosovo Liberation Army war, which together with NATO, brought freedom to Kosovo and ended the genocide Serbia was conducting in Kosovo, has been especially targeted.

We know, but we have to tell our international friends that after the end of the LDL, the evil had not ended for us. Milosevic himself has highlighted this to General Clark. That truth is the continuation of the extermination policy of Albanians from the monarchist Sebi, but that Yugoslav communist structures reasoned by demonising any figure for the time of war with slander and fiction, only to justify the depression they were practicing. So it has been with the image of Xhafer Deva.

In this story, Kosovo's anti-fascist Movement had no role, but during the post-1945 period, under pressure from Belgrade, it did everything to fight against any group seeking freedom. Kosovo remains one of the few countries where the communist elite had no role in the path towards freedom and independence, unlike Slovenia, Croatia or Macedonia. The only one was Mahmut Bakalli, who was fought by the pro-Serbian clan in the Kosovo Communist League in 1981.

Today in The Hague founded by Kosovo and the European Union, Kosovo's Special Court is changing the Kosovo war's framework for independence and freedom. This court has found its ally in Belgrade, who has offered all aid in suing and potentially condemning the leadership of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The court has nothing to do with professional European judicial institutions.

The standards it is implementing, the way it is functioning and violating the fundamental rights of the detainees on its part make it appear more like an institution operating in Iran than in the EU.

That court is trying to accuse Kosovo of ethnic cleansing of Serbs from “Kosovo in 1999, with the goal of changing demographics and influence on Kosovo's political status”. That's what the DA's papers say. It recognises Serbian forces as the legitimate force in Kosovo and the KLA as joint criminal enterprise. It acknowledges Serbia's institutions as reliable and Kosovo sources as corrupt. It hides excusing documents from Western institutions and witnesses from Kosovo, while using facts and documents produced by Serbia. He has accused only Albanians, while Serb leadership, generals and soldiers who committed crimes consider them partners in the process against the Kosovo Liberation Army. This is the real change of history that is taking place, again promoted to Belgrade and naively supported by some in Kosovo and Europe.

It is terrible that in Kosovo the government, opposition, and civil society accept this change of narrativeness. It is more absurd how the European Union is condoning violations of European standards of the judiciary and human rights. If a court in Kosovo had concealed documents or statements of witnesses from someone, or a prosecutor would violate any elementary rule, it would have caused a chain of reactions from diplomats, civil society and politicians. There is complete silence, no responsibility from the court, no reaction from those who usually react to everything.

To be clear, the Court must enable a fair, independent, and impartial judgment. Not a political process without facts, keeping Kosovo citizens under political grounds. But the tribunal has no mandate to change Kosovo's history and rehabilitate Serbia. Today, the tribunal aims to equal Kosovo with Serbia, wants to give a gift to Serbia -- to sentence the first president in post-Yugoslav war crimes space. That's their point. While Serbia's president during the war in Kosovo, Milan Milutinovici is free, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and the other leadership of The KLA is in custody. That's the change of history.

German ambassador must react.

That is why Kosovo should rise up against the revision of the new history coming from Belgrade. A revision that has found allies in Europe and Kosovo.