Kosovo PM reaffirms commitment to Serbia dialogue

The prime minister of Kosovo on Saturday said that despite recent setbacks in efforts to normalize ties with Serbia, he remained "committed to the process" of dialogue.

Avdullah Hoti held a news conference after his visit to Brussels, following the indictment of Kosovo's president for war crimes stemming from the 1990s armed conflict between ethnic Albanian separatists he helped lead and Serbian forces.

President Hashim Thaci, who had already left for Washington for talks on normalizing ties with Serbia, on Friday headed back to Kosovo.

"Kosovo's liberation war is the biggest achievement of our organization to win independence," said Hoti.

"That war was sacred, it brought our freedom and independence. The act of declaring independence was recognized by the international court as a fair one that fully legitimizes the war."

The prime minister acknowledged that the indictment against President Hashim Thaci changed the agenda and obliged them to require a postponement of the dialogue with Serbia.

On Wednesday an international prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers announced the indictment for Thaci and other former rebel fighters with war crimes and crimes against humanity during and after a 1998-99-armed conflict between the ethnic Albanian separatists and Serbia.

A pretrial judge at The Hague-based court is studying the indictment and could still reject it if there is not enough evidence to back it up.

Thaci was a commander of the Kosovo Liberation army, or KLA, that fought for independence from Serbia. The fighting left more than 10,000 dead, most of them ethnic Albanians, and 1,641 are still unaccounted-for.

The war ended after a 78-day NATO air campaign that forced Serbian troops to withdraw.

The vast majority of atrocities committed during the 1998-99 Kosovo war were committed by Serbian troops, international courts have confirmed with their sentencing of several top Serb officials and military commanders to lengthy jail terms.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Serbia has not recognized.

U.S. presidential envoy Richard Grenell, who had initiated a White House meeting of the Kosovar and Serbian leaders, will re-schedule it.

The White House meeting would be the first talks between Serbia and Kosovo in 19 months.

The United States and the European Union have been working to help normalize ties between the two countries.