Kosovo's Ex-President Claims He is Innocent of Alleged War Crimes

Facts

• Former Kosovo Pres. Hashim Thaci has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He and three co-defendants went on trial Monday accused of killing nearly 100 people among other serious crimes.¹
• The charges stem from Kosovo’s 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia in which the defendants allegedly targeted political opponents and minority ethnic Serbs and Roma in the war that killed 13K people, most of whom were Kosovo Albanians.²
• Thaci served as commander-in-chief of the ethnic Albanian rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), while his three co-defendants — Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi, and Jakup Krasniqi — are former KLA leaders.³
• Thousands gathered in The Hague to protest in support of Thaci, who is widely considered a hero in Kosovo. The former president resigned shortly after his 2020 indictment and was transferred to The Hague.⁴
• Prosecutor Alex Whiting invoked the phrase: "Nobody is above the law," in reference to Thaci. He added that Thaci targeted political adversaries and also victimized his own people, but the defendant claims he is "fully not guilty."⁴
• Many Kosovans support the KLA, which prosecution lawyer Clare Lawson has stressed is not on trial. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 — although the West recognizes its independence, Belgrade and its allies Russia and China do not.⁴

Sources: ¹BBC News, ²Reuters, ³Al Jazeera, and ⁴Associated Press.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Human Rights Watch. Hashim Thaci and the three KLA leaders must stand trial and answer for their litany of heinous crimes. Their victims deserve answers, and the public deserves to know about the atrocities that have occurred in Kosovo over the past 25 years. Amid conflict in the region, Thaci and the KLA targeted political opponents and ethnic minorities, committing crimes against humanity, including murder and forced disappearances. No one is above the law, and this trial will prove it.
• Narrative B, as provided by Balkan Insight. Thaci is a freedom fighter and hero who made enormous sacrifices for Kosovo’s independence. Prosecutors are corruptly trying to attach Thaci and the KLA to various crimes committed in the late 1990s that they had nothing to do with. This trial is a sham, and prosecutors are making outright lies about Kosovo, its leader, and its independence. Thaci is innocent, and this trial will prove that undoubtedly.

Predictions