Kosovo president faces war crimes charges
BRUSSELS — Kosovo President Hashim Thaci was indicted on a range of war crimes charges, including nearly 100 killings, a special prosecutor in The Hague announced Wednesday, just three days before the leader was due at the White House for a special summit with Serbia.
The announcement of the 10count indictment threw the summit into disarray. Thaci, who already had left Kosovo for the United States, planned to turn around and head home, his office said.
U.S. special envoy Richard Grenell
tweeted that the talks would continue anyway, with Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti leading the delegation from Pristina.
The delegation wasn’t expected to meet with President Donald Trump himself Saturday in any case, though Trump had inaugurated the process last year by dangling the possibility of a White House peace summit.
The Hague-based special prosecutor’s office has been investigating crimes against ethnic Serbs connected to Kosovo’s 1998-1999 war of independence.
Many of Kosovo’s leading politicians took part in the war, which claimed more than 10,000 lives and ended after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in support of the separatists.
Thaci was one of the top commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army and has denied previous allegations of war crimes.
But the special prosecutors office said Wednesday that based on a “lengthy investigation,” it could prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Thaci and others had perpetrated “murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture.”
It added that “the crimes alleged in the indictment involve hundreds of known victims of Kosovo Albanian, Serb, Roma and other ethnicities and include political opponents.”
The indictment still must be approved by a judge before any legal process goes forward.
Thaci didn’t immediately comment on the substance of the charges beyond the announcement that he would return to Kosovo. A spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration also didn’t comment on the substance of the indictment beyond Grenell’s tweet.
Thaci was expected to visit the White House along with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Serbia never recognized Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence, and the summit was intended to try to resolve their impasse. NATO peacekeepers are still deployed in Kosovo.
If the talks do go forward, Thaci’s absence will be felt. Hoti has been in office for three weeks, whereas Thaci has led Kosovo as prime minister or president for most of its independent existence.