Kosovo President Hashim Thaci Arrested, Moved to The Hague to Face War Crimes Charges

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, a wartime hero turned politician, was arrested and transferred to the detention center of the Kosovo Tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Thursday to face charges of war crimes. Thaci and three other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army are accused of overseeing illegal detention facilities where the movement’s opponents were kept in inhumane conditions, tortured and sometimes killed. Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said the indictment against Thaci gave hope to thousands of victims of the war “who have waited for more than two decades to find out the truth about the horrific crimes.” In Belgrade, lawmaker Milovan Drecun who is chairman of the Serbian parliamentary committee for Kosovo said the indictment proved that “establishing the truth about war crimes of the KLA and punishing those responsible is an irreversible process.” In July, Thaci met the prosecutors in The Hague to discuss the allegations against him. Another three Kosovo politicians and former KLA members – Rexhep Selimi, a deputy in the Kosovo parliament, Kadri Veseli, the president of Thaci’s Kosovo Democratic Party, and veteran Kosovo politician Jakup Krasniqi – were transferred to The Hague on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity on Wednesday and Thursday, the tribunal said.