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"The KLA was financed by drug traffickers", a 2012 paper by the new Kosovo parliament speaker sparks reactions

2025-08-27 23:02:26Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"The KLA was financed by drug traffickers", a 2012 paper by the new
Dimal Basha

A 2012 paper, co-authored by the new Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly, Dimal Basha, sparked widespread reactions in Kosovo on August 27.

In the paper titled: “Globalism in the Western Balkans: Transnational Crime, Fundamentalist Islam, and Unfair Alliances”, it was stated that “according to the cases investigated, funds for the KLA came from ordinary Albanians in the diaspora, but also from drug traffickers operating throughout Western Europe and the United States.”

Following media reports about this work, the new Speaker of the Parliament, Dimal Basha, denied that he had ever written against the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Basha said that his contribution to this work is only in Chapter 3, "which deals with the penetration of fundamentalist Islam in Southeast Europe, with a focus on Kosovo."

"This is where my responsibility regarding the work in question ends," he wrote on Facebook.

The co-author of this paper, Jana Arsovska, also supported Basha's claim.

"In short, Mr. Basha has contributed only to this chapter, which explores the spread of radical Islam in Southeast Europe, with a particular focus on Kosovo," she told the media in Kosovo.

Basha, in his reaction, said that he highly values ​​the KLA's struggle and the sacrifice of the people of Kosovo for freedom.

"I, Dimal Basha, highly value the war of the Kosovo Liberation Army and the sacrifice of our people for freedom. From my mouth and from my hands, no content has been written and will never be found that contradicts this sacred value of our people," Basha wrote.

He apologized to the citizens of Kosovo, who he said may have been concerned "by this false reporting."

Media reports that Basha, who was a student at the time, had written an article with anti-KLA content, sparked numerous reactions in the public.

The KLA Veterans Organization expressed "indignation over the election of Basha as head of the Assembly."

"This person is known for his denigrating and insulting stances towards the Kosovo Liberation Army, presenting it as linked to crime and tarnishing the greatest sacrifice of our people. It is unacceptable and unforgivable that the Kosovo Assembly is led by a man who has insulted and attacked the KLA and our martyrs," the KLA's OVL said.

The Mayor of Drenas, Ramiz Lladrovci, published part of this work, and demanded Basha's dismissal.

"Our Kosovo had and still has 'contributors' like Dimal Basha, but like these two pages that prove the depth of lies, the seriousness of deception and anti-nationalism, they cannot be found by Albanian authors," Lladrovci wrote on social media.

Other political and civil society figures also reacted angrily after reports of this work.

Otherwise, Basha was elected head of the Kosovo Assembly on August 26. He has also been a member of parliament in previous legislatures and is known for his harsh language towards those he considers opponents.

He has often criticized the parties that were in opposition last term, the justice system, but also the media.

What else was said in this paper?

The paper published in 2012 states that in addition to the KLA being "financed by drug traffickers," the support did not only include money.

"But drug traffickers sent armed men to fight alongside the KLA and bought weapons on behalf of the KLA."

“While the connection between the KLA and organized crime is difficult to measure, there are well-known court cases from Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Czech Republic that strongly suggest a connection between drug traffickers and the KLA,” the paper said.

According to the paper, in Belgium the boss of the "so-called Albanian mafia left bullets in front of the doors of members of the Albanian diaspora as a reminder that the 'voluntary' taxes they had paid to support the shadow government and the KLA were not actually 'voluntary'."

The paper claims that the survival of the KLA “depended on funding provided by patriotic bandits operating across borders. So-called voluntary taxes were sent to humanitarian organizations such as Vendlindja Thërret.”

In the paper, the war in Kosovo in 1998-99 is described as an "ethnic conflict", while it is claimed that Western intelligence agencies "often turned a blind eye to the collaboration between crime and politics in Kosovo".

“Since the early 1990s, many were aware of the connection between the KLA and drug traffickers. After the conflict, the KLA itself was formally disbanded, yet many former KLA commanders became involved in politics. With politics came crime,” the paper states.

The KLA was a political-military force that fought for the liberation of Kosovo from Serbian rule in the period 1990-1999./ REL


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