President of Kosovo accused of war crimes
The president of Kosovo has been charged by an international court with war crimes and crimes against humanity, stemming from the Balkan country’s war with Serbia in the Nineties.
Hashim Thaci, a former political leader in the Kosovo Liberation Army, was charged with 10 counts by a special prosecutor based in The Hague.
Thaci and nine others ‘‘are criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders’’, torture and enforced disappearances, according to prosecutors at the Kosovo Specialist Court.
Among the others indicted was Kadri Veseli, a wartime intelligence chief and former parliamentary speaker. The crimes allegedly involved ‘‘hundreds of known victims of Kosovo Albanian, Serb, Roma and other ethnicities’’, as well as political opponents.
The charges were laid by prosecutors back in April, but they said they had decided to make them public now ‘‘because of the repeated attempts by Thaci and Veseli to obstruct and undermine the work of the KSC’’.
A judge from the court will now have to decide whether to confirm the charges, which Thaci has denied. Neither his office nor that of Veseli responded to requests for comment.
The announcement of the charges came just days before Thaci was due to travel to Washington DC for a meeting on Saturday with Aleksandar Vucˇ ic´ , the president of Serbia.
The announcement of the charges raised eyebrows among Balkan watchers.
Some analysts said the move could be a deliberate attempt by the EU to upset the Washington meeting, which could reportedly include discussions about a controversial territory swap between Serbia and Kosovo. The territory exchange is opposed by many European countries, including Germany and Britain, who fear it could open a Pandora’s Box in a region where much blood has already been spilt on redrawing frontiers.
‘‘The question everyone is asking is, why now? This has been dragging on for years and years and then all of a sudden, days before Thaci and Vucˇic´ meet in Washington, out of the blue comes this announcement,’’ James KerLindsay, a Balkan expert at the London School of Economics, said.
‘‘It raises some serious questions.
‘‘It is a highly irregular move that has come at a critical moment.’’
Wednesday night, Thaci said he was cancelling his visit to Washington and Kosovo will be represented by Avdullah Hoti, its new prime minister. ‘‘This a moment of reckoning has been a long time in the making,’’ Belul Beqaj, a political scientist, said.
‘‘Thaci can no longer be a legitimate negotiator or representative of Kosovo internationally.’’ –