Haziri Borovci testifies at The Hague: The KLA had religious and party differences, brought us together

Haziri Borovci has said Salih Mustaf has seen it in early April 1999 in the village of Bbutovac in Pristina, where those sides, according to him, met again there during mid-April of that year.

Borovci, who is Mustafa's fourth defence witness, has told the court in The Hague that Mustafa has advised them not to abandon Albanian civilians and that he has given them moral support.

During his testimony, Borovci has said, among other things, that the KLA has not influenced political or religious differences.

While answering the questions of lawyer Julius Von Bone, Borovci has said he has been locked in the Democratic League of Kosovo since its beginnings.

It has shown that during the war it has inhabited the “road. Isa Kastrati” near Velani in Pristina and that it has stayed there until the start of NATO bombings.

I was also part of the Pristina Emergency Council at that time acting as a Democratic League, or vice president of the Third Branch, and I feel good in front of you when I said I was part of the Kosovo Liberation Army, that I was one of the soldiers, responsiblely the Saviors of the Kosovo Liberation Army. I had engagements at my branch, in LDK, I had commitments at the Municipal Emergency Council, whether to solidarity, and also with honor and satisfaction I say before you I was a soldier of the Kosovo Liberation Army”, Borovci said.

He has announced that at that time he was also part of the Municipal Emergency Council in Pristina, until 24 March, where he and civilians have been forced to move from the capital.

And they were arrested, they were physically abused, they were talked about, they were kept in conversation, and in every part of the neighborhood, no one could get in, and no one could come out, except for a few lines that we used very carefully. In Pristina we have stayed until the end of March, when the neighbourhood is surrounded in three directions, the moment the neighbourhood is surrounded in three directions we have come out together with the population”, he said.

Borovci has said that on 31 March they have left the capital for Bbutovac, a mountainous country near Pristina. He has said he has settled in the homes of the Recica family, the Mustaf Sopi and Sinan Sopi, while some of the people had gone to the Suteska neighbourhood.

In Bovovac, he has said they have stayed until June 12th 1999. There, Borovci said he made guards.

Lawyer Von Bone has asked him if he ever met with Salih Mustaf for what Borovci said he saw about April 2nd or April 3rd 1999 in Bbutovac.

The place where I stored at that point. Near is the house of Mustaf Sopi, where several families have stayed, and I, after finishing the guard, came to rest, passed from Mustaf Sopi's house, and there I met Salih Mustaf. I didn't know Salih Mustaf before but when they did Bajram, and based on what Professor Sopi told me, even according to what he said to the civilian population, and he turned to us. I realized that it was Salih Mustafan”, Borovci said.

He has said Mustafa has met several more times, including the second part of April.

And during this period I've seen it several times and we've talked about it not many times, but I've seen it more times than we've talked, because it also advised us, it advised us, when I first saw what it was like to advise the civilian population, then I remember what Professor Mustaf Sopi told me about it and I knew it was Salih Mustafa. The first week of April until the second part of April, if I remember 15,16, 17 April, this period I was talking about. When I first saw them counseling, it gave morals to the civilian population as helping each other, as helping the children, we suggested not to leave the population alone”, he said.

When asked to describe Salih Mustafen, Borovci said he had the same green jacket, adding that there was nothing special in his appearance.

Borovci has said he himself has been locked in the KLA since January 1998, while adding that there have been no political or religious differences inside.

If there were differences, then I was deputy chairman of the LDK branch, there were no differences in party terms, no religious terms. They've tried to insist, improvise to divide us, but when it's about freedom, country and country, they've all been together and they've been together. Both the LDK and the KLA and other subjects, and there has been neither religious distinction nor party-side”, the witness Borovci has said.

Haziri Borovci is the fourth defence witness to Salih Mustaf, who has been arrested on 24 September 2020 with the war crimes claim.

According to the Specialised Chambers “The confirmed indictment stipulates that approximately between April 1st 1999 and April 19, 1999, at a detention complex in Zlatko, Kosovo, arbitrary crimes, cruel treatment and torture against at least six persons were committed. Also, the indictment says that on a date between April 19, 1999, or about this date, and about the end of April 1999, a banned” was killed at that location.

Salih Mustafa is staying in custody at The Hague, while in his statement to the court he has been declared innocent.