It's just the latest scandal to engulf the highest levels of Kosovan politics – in July 2019, the nation's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned after he was summoned by the court on suspicion of war crimes.
Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and nine other former Kosovo Liberation Army militants have been indicted for war crimes by the Office of the Special Prosecutor in the Hague.
In a statement, prosecutors at the EU-backed Kosovo Specialist Chamber said Thaci et al were “responsible for nearly 100 murders”, including Kosovar Albanians, Serbs and Roma people, with political opponents also targeted – the 10 men also faces charges of torture, persecution, and forced disappearance.
The indictment follows a lengthy investigation, and the court is convinced it can prove all the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. This certainty comes despite Thaci and another suspect, former parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli, being accused of trying to “obstruct and undermine” the tribunal's work via a “secret campaign to overturn the law…in an attempt to ensure that they do not face justice,” the statement said.
Thaci played a prominent role in the KLA, which despite being designated a terrorist group by the United Nations in March 1998 was secretly trained and armed by US and UK intelligence services and special forces to assassinate Serbian politicians and policemen in Kosovo, then a Serb province, and harass and intimidate Kosovo Albanians insufficiently enthusiastic…
