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PRISTINA: Thousands of Kosovo war veterans staged a protest rally Thursday against a war crimes court in The Hague that they accused of “distorting history” over its prosecution of former guerilla leaders.
Chanting the Kosovo Liberation Army name and waving flags bearing the symbols of ethnic Albanian guerrillas, protesters filled a central square in Pristina and streets around the government headquarters.
“The special court is biased, anti-KLA and anti-Kosovo,” Hysni Gucati, head of the veterans organization, told the crowd.
“The court has deviated from its mission and is distorting history,” he said.
Several ex-military figures, including former Kosovo president Hashim Thaci, are being prosecuted for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during and after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Serbian forces.
The conflict, which ended after a NATO air campaign ousted Serbian military and police from the territory, left around 13,000 people dead, mostly ethnic Albanian civilians.
Kosovo courts have prosecuted war crimes by Albanians and Serbs in the past, but the special court was set up in The Hague due to the difficulty in securing witnesses for trials against prominent KLA leaders at home.
A court in Pristina is preparing to try dozens of Serb police and military officers for one of the worst massacres of the war, in which 370 civilians were killed.
Opponents of the special court decry the use of evidence supplied by Serbian authorities however.
The tribunal, staffed by international judges, has pursued several KLA members since 2023. Apart from Thaci, other senior figures being prosecuted include former intelligence chief, Kadri Veseli, a regional commander Rexhep Selimi and KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi.
All are considered KLA founders and enjoy great popularity within the ranks of the former guerrillas, but are accused of war crimes.
“Our history is being rewritten by the court,” said Gazmend Syla, vice president of the War Veterans Organization. “This shakes the foundations of our state.”
Serbia has never recognized Kosovo’s independence, and talks to normalize relations between the neighbors have all but collapsed.

VILLEROUGE LA CREMADE, France: France’s largest wildfire in decades was contained Thursday after burning more than 160 square kilometers (62 square miles) in the country’s southern wine region and claiming one life, local authorities said.

The blaze erupted Tuesday and tore through the Aude region, spreading rapidly due to hot, dry weather. Cooler overnight temperatures and calmer winds slowed its advance and allowed firefighters to make headway.

Late Thursday, the region’s top government official said the fire was contained. However, residents were warned not to return home without authorization, as many roads remained blocked and dangerous.

The fire swept through 15 communes in the Corbières mountain region, destroying or damaging at least 36 homes, with a full damage assessment still underway. One person died at home, and at least 13 others were injured, including 11 firefighters, according to local authorities. Three people who were reported missing have been found safe.

An investigation is underway to determine what sparked the fire.

The fire was the largest recorded since France’s national fire database was created in 2006.

But France’s minister for ecological transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, called the blaze the worst since 1949 and linked it to climate change.

“It is a fire that is clearly a consequence of climate change and drought in this region,” she told France Info radio.

Despite the breakthrough, officials warned the situation remained fragile.

“We still have a few days before we can say that the fire is completely out,” region administrator Christian Pouget said. “The battle is not over yet.

The region’s economy relies heavily on winemaking and tourism — both hard-hit.

The fire began in the village of Ribaute, in a rural, wooded area known for its wineries. Pouget said between 8 and 9 square kilometers (more than 3 square miles) of vineyards had burned. Officials estimate 80 percent of local vines were either destroyed or damaged — and even the grapes that survived may be too smoke-tainted to produce quality wine.

“The vineyards are burnt and the landscape is gone,” said Batiste Caval, a seventh-generation winemaker near Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.

Some vineyards acted as natural firebreaks, leaving a surreal patchwork of scorched hills and untouched green vines. But across the Corbières, entire stretches of historic vineyards were reduced to ash. Caval, who owns 60 of the 400 hectares farmed by a local cooperative, said the fire may tip already struggling winemakers into crisis after years of drought and other harsh weather.

New vines typically take three years to bear usable fruit. Some can produce wine for decades, even up to half a century.

“It’s very sad to think about the image we’re going to give of our Corbières region, with its devastated landscapes and desperate women and men, not just today or tomorrow, but for weeks and months to come. It will take years to rebuild,” said Xavier de Volontat, the mayor of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, speaking to BFMTV.

Residents and tourists in nearby areas had been asked to stay indoors unless ordered to evacuate. Those forced to flee were housed overnight in emergency shelters across 17 municipalities.

Southern Europe has seen multiple large fires this summer. Scientists warn that climate change is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of heat and dryness, making the region more vulnerable to wildfires. Last month, a wildfire that reached the southern port of Marseille, France’s second-largest city, left around 300 people injured.

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.