Kosovo leader a criminal: big surprise

Tags: Serbia, body parts trafficking, Hashim Tachi, Commentary, World, Politics

Jan 25, 2011 19:05 Moscow Time

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Hashim Thaci. Photo: EPA

On Monday, the electoral authorities in Kosovo, the partly-recognized Serb territory that unilaterally proclaimed its independence in 2008, published the final results of the general elections that took place in December last year. According to the official results, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci’s Democratic Party appears to be the winner with 32.40 per cent of the vote (it should be noted, however, that the Serbian population almost unanimously abstained from participation in the voting).

The results were met with wide-spread protests even among the Albanian population on Kosovo territory - the rule of Hashim Thaci and his clique has alienated most people.

What is even more important, is that the announcement of the election results coincided with new findings of a Council of Europe commission headed by Swiss prosecutor and human rights rapporteur Dick Marty investigating the crimes committed by the Kosovo authorities against the population. The hearings at the Council of Europe are due Tuesday and there is strong ground to believe that a strong resolution condemning Kosovo authorities and linking Hashim Thaci himself to the crimes is going to be passed.

The Council of Europe’s report is further supported by secret NATO documents that were leaked to “The Guardian” and published on Tuesday. According to the papers, Hashim Thaçi has been identified as one of the “biggest fish” of organized crime in Kosovo. According to the papers, Thaçi was the head of a “mafia-like” network responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs during and after the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

Even more inconvenient for the Western powers  is that in 2008  attempts to officially recognize Kosovo’s “independence”, came against a background of full awareness of the illegal activities of their darling by NATO officials as also revealed in the secret NATO documents.

In fact, most of the funding the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army received during the war against Serbia, in fact originated from illegal activities like smuggling, drug and human trafficking. The neighboring European countries had for several years experienced the effects of Kosovo mafia activity even before the territory was proclaimed “independent”. But for some time, the powers that be preferred to turn a blind eye to what was really going on in Kosovo and what was originating from Kosovo.

Now, it has “suddenly” dawned on European politicians that their darling Hashim Thaci does not look like the “dove” they were trying hard to make him out to be for so many years. Of course, during the war killings and other atrocities were committed by all parties concerned. But the fact is that for some time, the atrocities committed by Serbs tended to hit the headlines, while atrocities against Serbs were mostly hushed up. This time Thaci is hopefully not going to escape – if not punishment, then at least media attention. Accusations that the Kosovo Liberation Army killed Serbs with no other reason than to sell their kidneys, are very serious . And there is enough evidence to state that Hashim Thaci’s inner circle oversaw the gang committing those crimes.

Hashim Thaci and his government tried hard to dismiss the findings as Serbian and Russian propaganda. But it is clear that Dick Marty is neither a Serb nor a Russian, and it is still much more evident that the top secret NATO papers leaked to “The Guardian” and published on Tuesday have nothing in common with Russia or Serbia.

Now, Hashim Thaci faces a difficult choice – whether to accept the report and surrender to the Western law enforcement, or insist on his innocence, thus closing his domain to any outside interference and turning himself into the leader of a “rogue state”. Accordingly, the West is also facing a difficult problem – whether to persist in its adherence to the “universal principles of  human rights” and thus abandon its own minion, or acknowledge that the whole story the creation of Kosovo  was from the very beginning based false inputs.