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Agence France-Presse

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has been charged with 10 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the country’s conflict in the 1990s, a tribunal in The Hague said on Wednesday.
Wartime intelligence chief and former parliamentary speaker Kadri Veseli is also accused of war crimes by specialist prosecutors before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC).
The charges against both men were brought on April 24 but not revealed publicly at the time, prosecutors said in a statement.
“The indictment alleges that Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli and the other charged suspects are criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders,” the statement added.

The accused are also facing other charges such as enforced disappearance of persons, persecution and torture.
The crimes alleged in the indictment “involved hundreds of known victims of Kosovo Albanian, Serb, Roma, and other ethnicities and include political opponents”.
Prosecutors said they decided to make the accusations public because Thaci and Veseli had made “repeated attempts” to obstruct the KSC.
The charges will now be put before a pre-trial judge at the KSC for a decision to confirm them, the prosecutors said.
Serbia’s ruling party crushes rivals in vote as global powers watch
Thaci was preparing for a summit at the White House on Saturday with Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic and local media reports suggested he had already left for the US.
But US special envoy to Serbia and Kosovo Richard Grenell, who organised the White House meeting, said in a tweet that Thaci had cancelled going to the summit following the charges in The Hague.
“I respect his decision not to attend the discussions until the legal issues of those allegations are settled,” Grenell said. Talks will now go ahead with Kosovo’s new Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, who has moved to ease friction with Serbia.
Thaci’s office did not specify his whereabouts. But before the charges were announced he gave an interview in Tirana, the capital of Albania, and was headed from there to Frankfurt, the journalist who interviewed him told AFP.

The EU-backed tribunal was established in 2015 to investigate crimes by independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerillas against mainly Serb civilians during the 1998-1999 war.
The conflict pitted Kosovo Liberation Army guerillas seeking independence for the southern Serbian province of Kosovo against Serbia’s forces, who withdrew from the territory after an 11-week Nato bombing campaign.
The tribunal was created after a Council of Europe report tied former guerilla leaders, including Thaci, to atrocities.
The court announced earlier this year that it had handed down its first indictments against high-ranking Kosovo officials without naming them, but speculation was already rife that it included Thaci.
International court approves probe on war crimes in Afghanistan
Asked in April whether he would resign if he was charged, Thaci told local media he was not even thinking about it and would “respond positively” if he was asked to appear at the tribunal.
News of the indictment was met with caution by many in Pristina.
“This court, if it works properly, will clean up the KLA’s war [record], because it is extremely certain that no KLA soldier who has worn the uniform has committed crimes against Serb civilians,” lawyer Skender Musa said.
These are “very serious indictments. I hope they are not true and we will prove our clean war”, added Ermal Emini, an economist.

Kosovo’s outgoing prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, resigned last July after being summoned by the prosecutor for interrogation as a suspect.
Veseli said in November he had been summoned by the court to be questioned.
The KSC opened its doors in The Hague as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was winding down after almost 25 years of prosecuting crimes committed in the Balkans after Yugoslavia’s break-up in the early 1990s.
Haradinaj was acquitted of war crimes by the ICTY in 2012.
Kosovo celebrates 10 years since splitting from Serbia
Kosovo’s independence war claimed around 13,000 lives, most whom were ethnic Albanians.
The territory unilaterally declared its independence in 2008 with backing from the United States and most of the West.
But Serbia and its allies China and Russia have never accepted the move, and the status of Kosovo remains a major source of tension in the Balkans.


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War and conflict

Kosovo president Hashim Thaci charged with war crimes over 1990s killings

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci attends a security forces ceremony in Pristina in December 2018. Photo: Reuters

epa08506171 (FILE) Former Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Kosovo and chairman of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Kadri Veseli arrives at the parliament building in Pristina, Kosovo, 03 June 2020 (reissued 24 June 2020). The Specialist Prosecutor's Office (SPO) filed a ten-count Indictment with the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) for the Court's consideration, charging Kadri Veseli, with a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture. The Indictment is only an accusation. It is the result of a lengthy investigation and reflects the SPO's determination that it can prove all of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

(FILES) This file photo taken on May 8, 2018 shows former US Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell posing for photographers during an accreditation ceremony for new Ambassadors at the presidential Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany. - The US envoy to Serbia and Kosovo said June 15, 2020 the Balkan rivals have agreed to meet at the White House in late June to try and resume talks that have been shelved for over a year. The meeting was announced on Twitter by former US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who has been dispatched by President Donald Trump to tackle lingering hostilities between Serbia and its former province Kosovo. (Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP)

epa08506294 (FILE) - (FILE) The file picture dated on 10 December 2010 shows Kosovo's Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci greeting his supporters during the closing electoral rally in Pristina, Kosovo, 10 December 2010 (reissued 24 June 2020). According to reports, The Specialist Prosecutor's Office (SPO) filed a ten-count Indictment with the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) for the Court's consideration, charging Hashim Thaci, with a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture. The Indictment is only an accusation. It is the result of a lengthy investigation and reflects the SPO's determination that it can prove all of the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

Land swap plan sparks fear in Kosovo’s Serb enclaves

This picture taken on December 29, 2018 shows the portrait of the Serbian President displayed at the office of a Serbian political party in the town of Gracanica near Pristina. Photo: AFP

This file photo taken on May 3, 2017 shows Serbian Orthodox monks at the Decani Monastery near the town of Decan. - Dispersed in small enclaves throughout the country, Kosovo Serbs consider dangerous the idea to change borders with Serbia which has been discussed between Pristina and Belgrade as part of a historical peace agreement. (Photo by Armend NIMANI / AFP)

This file photo taken on May 3, 2017 shows Serbian Orthodox monks standing at the Decani Monastery near the town of Decan. - Dispersed in small enclaves throughout the country, Kosovo Serbs consider dangerous the idea to change borders with Serbia which has been discussed between Pristina and Belgrade as part of a historical peace agreement. (Photo by Armend NIMANI / AFP)

A man walks next to the portrait of the Serbian President displayed at the office of a Serbian political party in the town of Gracanica near Pristina, on December 29, 2018. - Dispersed in small enclaves like Gracanica throughout the country, Kosovo Serbs consider dangerous the idea to change borders with Serbia which has been discussed between Pristina and Belgrade as part of a historical peace agreement. (Photo by Armend NIMANI / AFP)

Serbia asks for China and Russia’s help over Kosovo plans to create regular army

Members of Kosovo Security Force at a ceremony in March 2017. Photo: EPA

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks during an interview by the Chinese media in Belgrade, Serbia on Aug. 6, 2018. (Dong Longjiang/Xinhua/Zuma Press/TNS)

Kosovo celebrates 10 years since splitting from Serbia

A father holds his baby next to an illuminated sign in the main square of Kosovo’s capital Pristina, Kosovo celebrated its 10th anniversary of independence on Saturday. Photo: AP

Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj looks at the Declaration of Independence in his office in Kosovo capital Pristina on Wednesday Feb. 14, 2018, ahead of the upcoming 10th independence anniversary. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008 file photo a man paints a pro-USA slogan on the wall in Gnjilane, Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, 2008. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic, File)

FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008 file photo Kosovar Albanian children climb onto a statue, as people celebrate the independence of Kosovo, on the Albanian side of the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo. Kosovo's parliament declared the disputed territory a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an "independent and democratic state" backed by the U.S. and key European allies but bitterly contested by Serbia and Russia. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008 file photo a Kosovar man drives a horse cart past graffiti drawn on a wall in eastern Kosovo town of Gnjilane. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia over the weekend and was swiftly recognized by the U.S. and Europe's major powers, but the new country has run into opposition from Russia and several nations in the EU that oppose Kosovo's becoming a state. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu, File)

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Leader and other officials accused of being responsible for nearly 100 murders
Thaci cancels White House trip for summit with Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic



Hashim Thaci and other officials accused of being responsible for nearly 100 murders.


Diplomacy

Defence

Kosovo president Hashim Thaci charged with war crimes over 1990s killings

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Leader and other officials accused of being responsible for nearly 100 murders Thaci cancels White House trip for summit with Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic

Leader and other officials accused of being responsible for nearly 100 murders

Thaci cancels White House trip for summit with Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic