Retired American diplomat Christopher Hill said at the trial of Hashim Thaci in The Hague that he was not the commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army
Retired diplomat, former special envoy of the United States during the war in Kosovo and US ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill stated before the Special Court in The Hague that the former president and prime minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci he did not command the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and that formation did not have a hierarchical structure.
As a defense witness, Hill presented his position at the trial of Thaci and other indictees for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Kosovo war, when they were part of Ovk.
Osim Thaci is also being tried in The Hague, as well as the former president of the Assembly of Kosovo, Kadri Veseli, the former president of the Assembly of Kosovo, Jakup Krasnići, and the former leader of the parliamentary group of the Self-Determination Movement in the Assembly of Kosovo, Redžep Seljimi. All four deny the allegations.
Hill also said that Thaci could not make decisions on behalf of the KLA during the negotiations in Rambouillet, and that he "was not the commander", but that he had to "ask the commanders at Kosovo "to express his opinion."
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"Perhaps he was not as powerful as it appeared from the outside, because every decision he made was the result of many previous consultations. My impression was that he was a reliable negotiator, but not a decision maker. That impression made sense when he told us that he could not agree with what was agreed in Rambouillet, and cited as an example that they would kill him if he agreed without consultation. The decision maker does not make such a comment. I understood that he was entrusted with gathering information. He was entrusted to present the arguments of the KLA, but he was not entrusted to make decisions, he was not left with a decision-making role," said Hill about That's it.
He also stated that he was "not sure" that Thaci was one of the founders of the KLA.
Describing his first meeting with Thaci in 1998, Hill described him as "soft-spoken and thoughtful".
"I got the impression that he belonged more in an academic environment than a military one," Hill said of Tachi.
When asked by the defense attorney about the allegations Slobodan Milosevic that Thaci was "a great warrior and that he participated in murders", Hill replied that he judged that Thaci was not as Milosevic described him and that he "had not heard such things about Thaci from anyone".
Hill emphasized that he is participating in this process because he "does not believe, nor has he ever heard, that Thaci ordered any illegal activities during the war."
Speaking about Jakup Krasnići, Hill stated that he "wasn't one of the key figures of the KLA" either.
Regarding Seljimi, he said that "he does not remember that he had a high position in the KLA".
According to the words of the former ambassador in Belgrade, the biggest problem for SAD was to find people who could speak on behalf of the KLA and then negotiate with them.
Hill said of the KLA that it was an organization "without a vertical structure and without a hierarchical organization."
Judge Fergal Gaynor asked Hill if he agreed that the KLA could be described as an "armed liberation movement".
Hill answered in the affirmative, but added that the KLA had "groups that acted at their discretion."
Hill also pointed out that the head of the political wing of the KLA, Adem Demaći, "was not a person you could cooperate with", that he had "harsh attitudes towards Serbia" and "some kind of resentment", because he was a prisoner.
"He was not a very cooperative person working on the document. He had very strong views, but in terms of cooperation he was difficult and we were not interested in promoting him," Hill said.
When asked by the defense if he is Robert Gelbard, the envoy for the Balkans in the administration of the former US president Bill Clinton, called the KLA a terrorist organization, Hill answered in the affirmative.
Hill explained that Gelbard based that qualification on his experience in Latin America.
"There were numerous criticisms of Gelbard's statement that the KLA was terrorist organization, and it was said that this accelerated the event, that is, the attack on the Jašari family. Gelbard seems to have given the green light to make it happen. "I believe there is no evidence for that, but it was discussed, because if the American envoy calls the KLA a terrorist organization, it is as if he is giving a signal to the Serbs to take action against them," said Hill.
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