At the special tribunal in The Hague, the prosecutor reveals the "darker side" of Hashim Theçi

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi at the opening of his trial in The Hague, Monday, April 3, 2023. AP - Koen van Weel

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Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi waged a bloody campaign against his political opponents during the 1998-1999 war of independence, resulting in more than 100 murders, the prosecution said on Monday (April 3rd) at the opening of his war crimes trial.

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Wearing a grey suit and blue tie, Hashim Thaçi pleaded not guilty again on Monday at the opening of his trial, as during his first appearance before the special court in The Hague in 2020. "I am absolutely not guilty," the former president said. His co-accused, one of his closest political allies, Kadri Veseli, former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) spokesman Jakup Krasniqi, and one of the KLA's leading figures, Rexhep Selimi, have all also maintained their innocence. All face six counts of crimes against humanity and four counts of war crimes, including murder, torture, enforced disappearances, persecution and cruel treatment committed during the 1998 and 1999 war between separatist guerrillas and Belgrade.

Still regarded in Kosovo as guerrilla heroes, the former president and his co-defendants openly imposed a brutal reign of imprisonment, torture and murder to tighten their grip on power during and after the war. "Why did they do this? The evidence will show it was to gain power," prosecutor Alex Whiting told the EU-funded Special Tribunal for Kosovo (KSC). "We intend to prove hundreds of detentions across Kosovo, usually in conditions of terrible abuse, and more than 100 killings," he said.

► Read also: The trial of the former president of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi opens in The Hague

The Kosovo war claimed 13,000 lives, most of them Kosovar Albanians. It ended when a campaign of NATO airstrikes in the spring of 1999 forced Serbian forces to withdraw. Hashim Thaçi was the first prime minister and president of the young nation, which declared its independence in 2008. But allegations of crimes committed during and after the war stick to him, as do accusations of corruption, in a country where KLA commanders have retained a key role in public life. "These four men were undoubtedly the main leaders of the KLA and they were celebrated and honored for that," the prosecutor said. "But there was a darker side to their leadership," he added.

« Climate of intimidation »

They had a "clear and explicit policy to target collaborators and those they saw as traitors," Whiting said. In addition to the ethnic Serbs and Roma who lost their lives, most of the victims were fellow Kosovo Albanians. "In their zeal to target and eliminate people they considered opponents," the defendants "also persecuted their own," he said.

Mr. Simon Laws, lawyer for victims, then took the floor to recall the tortures suffered in detention: nails pulled, paraffin burns. "The day they were targeted by the KLA, their lives changed forever," said the lawyer, who represents 140 victims, "many of whom continue to be afraid." Created in 2015, the KSC is a body under Kosovar law, highly secure and composed of international judges to protect witnesses. The prosecution nevertheless denounces a "climate of intimidation of witnesses" around this trial, some facing threats.

Mr. Simon Laws also said he spoke on behalf of the silent majority, the one in Kosovo that expects justice and trusts this court. Formed at the request of the European Union, this tribunal is much criticized in Kosovo, recalls our correspondent in The Hague, Stéphanie Maupas. The supporters of the KLA accuse him in particular of wanting to rewrite history. And not to be interested in the crimes committed by the Serbs. They were in fact tried by the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

The floor is now open to the defence lawyers. Then, the prosecutor will be able to call the first of his 300 witnesses to the stand.

(

And with AFP)

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• Kosovo
• International justice
• Hashim Thaçi