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Former Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi on Monday pleaded not guilty to charges of war and crimes against humanity as his trial began at a special court in The Hague, with protesters rallying outside to support the leader once feted by the West.
Thaçi and three co-accused face 10 charges of persecution, murder, torture and enforced disappearance during and shortly after the 1998-99 uprising that finally brought Kosovo independence from Serbia and made him a hero among many of his compatriots at home and abroad.
Prosecutor Alex Whiting said the four targeted political opponents, as well as ethnic Serb and Roma minorities, imprisoning hundreds in Kosovo in appalling conditions and killing 102 people.
Most of the victims were members of Kosovo’s 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority, he said.
“There is no justification … to arbitrarily detain civilians and people out of combat and subject them to abuse, torture, and killing … That’s why the prosecutor brought this case, to justify the rule of law and principles. that there is no above the law, even in times of war,” Whiting said.
The four defendants, all key leaders of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas and later in peaceful politics in the small Balkan country, all pleaded not guilty shortly after the hearing took place.
“I understand the charges and I am not guilty,” Thaçi, 54, told the court. Dressed in a dark pinstripe suit, the tall and sturdy Thaçi looked pale and gray after two years in detention.
Supporters rally for Thaçi
More than 13,000 people, the majority Kosovo Albanians, are believed to have died during the uprising, when Kosovo was still a Serbian province under president Slobodan Milosevic.
Thousands of Kosovar citizens gathered in the capital Pristina on Sunday to protest the court, and hundreds rallied outside the court in The Hague on Monday, holding banners with Thaçi’s image and chanting “KLA” in support of the independence movement.
In Pristina, resident Nazmi Kelmendi said on Monday that “not only is the KLA war just, the Kosovo state is also on trial.”
Lawyers for the alleged victims of the four co-defendants told the court that the people represented are a diverse cross-section of Kosovo society: “teachers, policemen, farmers, builders who were kidnapped at gunpoint.”
“For everyone, there is a day that changes their life forever, or in many cases, ends their life,” said the victims’ legal representative, Simon Laws.
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A long trial is possible
The judge adjourned the hearing until later in the afternoon after a statement from the victim’s lawyer. Before leaving the courtroom, Thaçi waved to political party leaders sitting in the public gallery above.
The proceedings will continue on Tuesday with opening statements from Thaçi’s lawyers.
The trial will be lengthy as prosecutors say it will take two years to present evidence.
Thaçi resigned as president shortly after the indictment in November 2020 and was transferred to detention in The Hague.
During his time as a prominent KLA leader and politician, Thaçi worked with many Western leaders. Joe Biden, when he was US vice president, called him the “George Washington of Kosovo,” and Thaçi was attending a meeting at Donald Trump’s White House when the indictment was announced.
“Your allies are on trial!” read one protest banner at a rally outside The Hague court.
The proceedings began two weeks after the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal, the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the crime of abducting Ukrainian children.
The Kosovo Specialist Chamber, which sits in the Netherlands and is staffed by international judges and lawyers, was established in 2015 to handle cases under Kosovo law against ex-KLA guerrillas.
Many Kosovars believe that the court is biased against the KLA and fear that the court will discredit the record to pave the way for the liberation of Kosovo from the repressive Serbian government.
The court was created separately from the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), also held in The Hague, which tried and convicted Serbian officials mainly for war crimes in the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo.
Milosevic was tried before the ICTY but he died in 2006 before a verdict was reached.
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