By Stephanie van den Berg
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -A former top United States diplomat testified on Monday that Hashim Thaci, Kosovo’s ex-president, had no real authority over the Kosovo Liberation Army’s military commanders at the start of the defence case in his war crimes trial.
James Rubin, a former top State Department official, was present at peace talks between Kosovo and Serbia and involved in the aftermath of the 1998-99 Kosovo uprising against Serbian troops. In his testimony he painted Thaci as a diplomatic frontman who had to seek approval from KLA military commanders.
“It was clear to me that he was not in charge. He didn’t have the knowledge, the capabilities or the authority to make decisions,” Rubin told the court of Thaci.
Thaci and three other former KLA commanders have been on trial since 2023. They face charges of persecution, murder, torture and forced disappearance during and shortly after the 1990s conflict that eventually brought Kosovo independence from Serbia.
THACI AND CO-ACCUSED ACCUSED OF VIOLENCE AGAINST FOES
Prosecutors have argued Thaci and others waged a violent campaign targeting political opponents, as well as minority ethnic Serbs and Roma, to gain full control of the territory.
Thaci and his co-accused deny the charges.
Rubin stressed that he believed Thaci had no control over other senior KLA commanders. “They told him what to do, he didn’t tell them what to do,” he said.
More than 13,000 people are believed to have died during the Kosovo conflict. The former Serbian province eventually declared independence in 2008, which Belgrade does not recognise.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, seated in the Netherlands and staffed by international judges and lawyers, was set up in 2015 to handle cases under Kosovo law against ex-KLA guerrillas.It is separate from the U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which tried and convicted mainly Serbian officials for war crimes in the Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo conflicts.
The Thaci case is the Kosovo tribunal’s biggest case with the most high-profile defendants. Many Kosovars believe the tribunal is biased against the KLA.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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