By Stephanie van den Berg
THE HAGUE, Sept 14 (Reuters) – A war crimes tribunal will on Wednesday announce a verdict in the trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci over charges dating back to a 1990s conflict fought over independence from Serbia.
Prosecutors are seeking 45-year sentences for Thaci, 58, and three other top commanders of what was the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They deny all the charges and their lawyers have sought their acquittal.
Various cities in Kosovo have set up big screens showing a countdown to the judgement, set to start at 10 a.m. in The Hague (0800 GMT). On Saturday, thousands of people attended a rally in the capital Pristina, demanding the men’s release.
The trial has highlighted how memories of the Balkan wars of the 1990s remain raw for people in the region and how entrenched views are on the ethnically charged issues that surfaced during the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Last week’s huge public funeral in Belgrade for Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who died while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, showed that public opinion remains divided on Balkan wars of the 1990s.
The outcome of the Thaci trial could affect Kosovo’s relations with the West, especially its ally the United States, and create new tensions with Serbia, which does not recognise Kosovo as an independent nation, political analysts say.
Thaci and the other commanders are charged with persecution, murder, torture and forced disappearances of Kosovo Albanians and Serbs during and shortly after the 1998-99 uprising that eventually brought independence for ethnic-Albanian majority Kosovo from Serbia.
Prosecutors have said more than 100 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces were killed during a violent political power grab by the KLA.
Lawyers for Thaci have argued that the accusations are unfounded and an attempt to rewrite history. They said there was no evidence to directly link Thaci to any of the alleged crimes or to conclude that he controlled other KLA commanders.
‘TECTONIC EVENT’
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, staffed by international judges and lawyers, is deeply unpopular in Kosovo. Under international pressure, Pristina agreed in 2015 to the tribunal, which handles war crime cases under Kosovo law against ex-KLA guerrillas.
Because of the risk of witness intimidation, many of the prosecution’s witnesses testified behind closed doors, increasing Kosovars’ mistrust of the institution.
“For us, Hashim Thaçi is a hero of Kosovo, a freedom fighter. He should return to Kosovo,” said Mentor Plakaj, a resident of the capital Pristina.
Thaci was Kosovo’s president from 2016 to 2020, and prime minister from 2008 to 2014.
“The verdict is a tectonic event,” said Agon Maliqi, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council think tank’s Europe Center.
If Thaci is acquitted and released, it could shift the balance of power in Kosovo politics more towards his pro-Western opposition party and restore faith in pursuing more cooperation with the West on regional security, he said.
Kosovo politics is deeply divided, especially over relations with the West, Maliqi said. If Thaci is found guilty, Kosovo could turn further away from the broader West than it already has under Prime minister Albin Kurti, he added.
“The outcome of the verdict will also have an immediate impact on already strained ethnic relations within Kosovo, as emotions will be high, and radical forces, including external actors, may have an incentive to stir tensions,” Maliqi said.
In the longer term it could also impact prospects for lasting peace with Serbia, depending on Belgrade’s reaction, he said.
Even if Thaci is cleared of war crimes charges, he would be unlikely to be released immediately as prosecutors have sought a six-year sentence against him in a separate case over alleged witness tampering. Thaci also denies those charges.
(Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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