Kosovo ex-speaker on war crimes indictment

Former Speaker and leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, Kadri Veseli has spoken out after he and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci were among a group of former separatist fighters indicted on Wednesday on a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes charges, including murder.

The indictments were issued by an international court investigating their actions against ethnic Serbs and others during and after Kosovo’s 1998-99 independence war with Serbia.

A statement from a prosecutor of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers said Thaci and the nine others "are criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders" involving hundreds of Serb and Roma victims, as well as Kosovo Albanian political opponents.

Other charges include enforced disappearance, persecution and torture, he said.

The prosecutor also accused Thaci and Veseli of repeated efforts "to obstruct and undermine the work" of the tribunal.

"The prosecutor's statement today is another effort to re-write history by distorting the truth about our saint liberating war," Veseli said.

Because of the indictment, Thaci has postponed his trip to the White House in Washington, where he was to meet Saturday for talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

"The President of Kosovo has just informed us that he has canceled his trip to Washington, D.C. following the announcement made by the Special Prosecutors Office. I respect his decision not to attend the discussions until the legal issues of those allegations are settled," tweeted Richard Grenell, the U.S. envoy for the Kosovo talks.

The talks will still go ahead, with Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, he added.

Thaci was a commander of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, that fought for independence from Serbia.

The war left more than 10,000 dead - most of them ethnic Albanians - and 1,641 are still unaccounted for.

It ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbian troops.

The former ethnic Albanian-dominated province declared independence from Serbia in 2008, which Serbia did not recognize.

The indictment was the first by the special tribunal for Kosovo based in The Hague.

The court has been operating since 2015 and has questioned hundreds of witnesses.

Kosovo's prime minister resigned last year before he was questioned.

The indictment is being reviewed by a pretrial judge who will decide whether to confirm the charges, according to the statement.

Kosovo politicians resisted and resented the scrutiny of the war crimes court, repeatedly noting that Serb troops committed massacres and other atrocities during the war that went unpunished.

Tensions between the two countries remain high.

European Union-facilitated negotiations to normalize their relations started in March 2011 and has produced some 30 agreements, most of which were not observed.

The Washington meeting was set to be the first talks between the two sides in 19 months.

(Image Credit Pixabay)