Protecting Kosovo

Shqip

Lushtaku may be tactically right not to want to appear in the “Jeta ne Kosova” debate, but strategically he has lost this battle. A politician who starts a war with a journalist will lose that war. His public lynching of Jeta, is being conducted under false pretexts.

By Behxhet Shala in Pristina


In today’s Kosovo, where independence remains disputed and sovereignty is imposed with an iron fist, politicians and journalists are considered the main pillars of the state – the former creating and carrying out policies and the latter supporting or opposing these policies.

In a normal country, this type of relationship would be completely acceptable, but in Kosovo, which is still struggling to belong somewhere, it simply does not work. In ‘real’ countries with established identities, it is much easier to become a politician. Investment in future politicians is a process that takes years, from the time of their earliest education until they reach political maturity. Only then do they enter the political race and meet with any success – a process intended to benefit the country and its people by fostering the creation of a normal democratic state. In such an infrastructure, journalists provide the opinions, the direction and often the content that helps to ensure a sustainable and equitable democracy.

Unfortunately, our situation in Kosovo is not such. Here, politicians become politicians overnight in the same manner in which dirty money earned by night is laundered by day. This is how such politicians destroy the state. We have politicians in Kosovo today who have been profiled and cleverly packaged in a way that neatly brushes over their arguably criminal and decidedly unpatriotic pasts.

These ‘Kalashnikov politicians’ often obtain for themselves fancy academic titles by pressuring the University of Pristina in a threatening manner, thus becoming, by default, a part of the so-called intellectual nomenclature.

Journalists are on the other end of this spectrum. In Kosovo, we have top notch journalists who have done much to form and save the reputation of the trade. Still, ‘real’ investigative, independent journalists are rare in Kosovo; survival, both physical and financial, is challenging at best.

Perhaps it is worth noting that despite all, I agree with Adem Demaci (called Baca Adem by Albanians) when he said that Prime-Minister Hashim Thaci and President Fatmir Sejdiu were the most competent people to lead Kosovo in this period – however sad such a thought may be.


As far as Drenica is concerned, one must ask: Is Drenica in Kosovo?

I love Drenica, I honestly do! During the time that I was in prison, I befriended mostly people from Drenica. I identified them all with Albanian national heroes such as Azem Bejta, Hasan Prishtina, Shotë Galica, Mehmet Gradica, Shaban Polluzha and Tahir Meha. I was a friend of Fehmi Lladrovci and Hafir Shala, and I had tremendous respect for Xheve Lladrovci - all famous former KLA soldiers who were killed in the war.

Drenica is the birthplace of Kosovo’s freedom; Prekaz is the capital of an independent Kosovo; while Adem Jashari is the creator of the Eternal Constitution of Kosovo – a constitution written in blood and which cannot fade, compared to Ahtisaari’s constitution, which will have only the longevity of a pen.

This is why I love Drenica, and I say that not only is it in Kosovo but it is the heart of Kosovo! However, it is not only in Drenica that one cannot speak openly about certain issues in Kosovo. There are other places where the cat may bet your tongue if you speak too openly about dangerous things. It is the same in Dukagjin, Llap, Prizren, Gjakova and Gjilan. It can even happen to you in Pristina. There are guns everywhere, not only in Drenica. Only crazy people are ready to kill for nothing.


For the sake of life in Kosovo, Jetas must be protected.

At the very beginning, I want to say that I don’t agree with everything that journalist Jeta Xharra (host of BIRN Kosovo’s weekly current affairs TV show, “Life in Kosovo”) does. I have opposed her and she has opposed me. I don’t know Jeta Abazi well, the young journalist who did the story on Skenderaj where she was attacked. Nonetheless, calling Jeta Abazi a “spy” for Serbia shows either a total lack of information or casual insanity. Not to mention the fact that Abazi’s family members were arrested under the Serb regime on charges of spying for the Albanians and they served as political prisoners of that regime for many years.

I know Sami Lushtaku (former Drenica KLA commander) as a brave man during the war. I dealt with Sami in my previous articles, and he was never angry with me; not even when I told him that he was wrong about Jeta Xharra. He has his position and sticks to it with stubbornness; and he supports this position with the fact that he got 90 per cent of the votes in his municipality in the last election.

Perhaps tactically he is right, but strategically he has lost this battle. A politician who starts a war with a journalist will lose that war – a media war is played out on a much different type of frontline.

I don’t judge him for not meeting with Jeta Xharra personally – after all, he is under no obligation to do so, but I do judge him for his public lynching of Jeta, which is being done under false pretexts. I have never accepted such tactics and never will, regardless of the victim. I am not convinced that Jeta Xharra is a spy or that she allegedly has “her head in Serbia and her body in Kosovo”.

I’m against seizing camera tapes by force, which is what happened to BIRN. I’m against the “Jeta ne Kosova” team having to leave Skenderaj escorted by the police because they did not need a police escort to go Skenderaj in the first place. Sami Lushtaku, after all, had waged many wars against the need for police escorts. I served some time in prison against this sort of regime and and this type of behavior, too.

As such, I am defending Jeta, and those like her, because I want to protect precisely the war fought by Sami; because I want to protect myself, my children and Drenica, which actually has a tradition of fighting for freedom - and this means freedom to speak freely, too.

If there’s a price that both these Jeta’s have to pay, i.e. BIRN journalists Jeta Xharra and Jeta Abazi, I am personally willing to pay the price. It is my duty - as a long-time human rights activist, as a former political prisoner, as a huge supporter of the KLA war, as a humanist and a man who always loved and still loves Drenica - to do so! No matter what the cost is.

The author of this text is executive director of the Council for Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms.