PRISTINA: Hashim Thaci, who resigned Thursday to face an indictment from a war crimes court in The Hague, is a former rebel leader once known as “Snake” who fought for Kosovo’s independence and has dominated the young democracy ever since.
For over two decades Thaci has played a central role in Kosovo’s political scene, making his name during the 1998-1999 war with Serbia as political leader of the pro-independence ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The tall, silver-haired 52-year-old, who also served more than seven years as prime minister, saw his popularity soar when he declared Kosovo’s independence from Serbia in 2008 just three months after he won an election.
But his image was tarnished by a 2010 Council of Europe report that linked him to organized crime and politically motivated murders of Serb, Albanian and Roma civilians during and after the war.
Special prosecutors in The Hague tasked with investigating the allegations announced charges against him in June, among them murder, enforced disappearance of persons, persecution, and torture.
On Thursday Thaci said he would resign after an indictment against him was confirmed by a pre-trial judge.
“These are not easy moments for me and my family, and for those who have supported and believed in me in the past three decades of our struggle for freedom, independence and nation-building,” he told a press conference.
Born on April 24, 1968 in the Drenica region of western Kosovo — a hotbed of separatism among Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian community — Thaci was involved in passive resistance to the Belgrade authorities from the early 1990s as a student.
He later moved to Switzerland — home to a large Albanian diaspora — where he studied history.
Together with ultra-leftists in the diaspora, he became frustrated by the policy of peaceful opposition to Belgrade’s repression of ethnic Albanians followed by late Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova.
Instead, he corralled other like-minded ethnic Albanians into an underground guerrilla army, the KLA, to take on the forces of then Serbia strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Thaci earned the nom de guerre of “Snake” during the conflict, when he served as the KLA’s political leader.
More than 13,000 lives, mainly ethnic Albanians, were lost in the war that ended after NATO intervened in 1999, ousting Serb forces and establishing UN administration over Kosovo.
Thaci then downed his guns and donned a suit, becoming known in the West as the “Gerry Adams of Kosovo” after his counterpart in Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army.
He won elections in November 2007 after the death the previous year of Rugova, who was regarded as the father of the nation and had proved unbeatable in all post-war polls.
Three months later, under Thaci’s leadership, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.
He has since remained at the heart of Kosovo politics, notably becoming president in 2016, despite accusations of corruption by his critics.
He has always denied any wrongdoing during the war, describing it as a “just” rebellion against Serbian repression.
“Political mistakes in peace I could have made, but war crimes, never,” he said in June, adding that he would “immediately resign” if the indictment was confirmed.
“I will not face justice from this office,” he said.
Hashim Thaci, rebel-turned-president accused of war crimes
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Hashim Thaci, rebel-turned-president accused of war crimes
- Thaci downed his guns and donned a suit, becoming known in the West as the “Gerry Adams of Kosovo” after his counterpart in Sinn Fein
- But his image was tarnished by a 2010 Council of Europe report that linked him to organized crime and politically motivated murders of Serb, Albanian and Roma civilians
India readies for US extradition of Mumbai attacks suspect
- Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen born in Pakistan, is due to be extradited ‘shortly’ to face trial
- India accuses him of being a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 64, a Canadian citizen born in Pakistan, is due to be extradited “shortly” to face trial, Indian media said, reporting that New Delhi had sent a multi-agency team of security officials to collect him.
India accuses him of being a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, designated by the United Nations as a terrorist organization, and of aiding planning the attacks.
US President Donald Trump announced in February that Washington would extradite Rana, whom he called “one of the very evil people in the world.”
The US Supreme Court this month rejected his bid to remain in the United States, where he is serving a sentence for a planning role in another LeT-linked attack.
New Delhi blames the LeT group – as well as intelligence officials from New Delhi’s arch-enemy Pakistan – for the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, when 10 Islamist gunmen carried out a multi-day slaughter in the country’s financial capital.
India accuses Rana of helping his longterm friend, David Coleman Headley, who was sentenced by a US court in 2013 to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to aiding LeT militants, including by scouting target locations in Mumbai.
Rana, a former military medic who served in Pakistan’s army, emigrated to Canada in 1997, before moving to the United States and setting up businesses in Chicago, including a law firm and a slaughterhouse.
He was arrested by US police in 2009.
A US court in 2013 acquitted Rana of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai attacks. But the same court convicted him of backing LeT to provide material support to a plot to commit murder in Denmark.
Rana was sentenced to 14 years for his involvement in a conspiracy to attack the offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which had published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that angered Muslims around the globe.
But India maintains Rana is one of the key plotters of the Mumbai attacks along with the convicted Headley – and the authorities have welcomed his expected extradition.
In February, Devendra Fadnavis, chief minister of Maharashtra state which includes the megacity Mumbai, said that “finally, the long wait is over and justice will be done.”
Devika Rotawan, a survivor of the Mumbai attacks, said she believed the extradition of Rana would be a “big win for India.”
“I will never be able to forget the attack,” she told broadcaster NDTV on Wednesday.
Counterterrorism experts however suggest Rana’s involvement was peripheral compared to Headley, a US citizen, who India also wants extradited.
“They gave us a small fish but kept David Headley, so the essential outcome is going to be symbolic,” said Ajay Sahni, head of the Institute for Conflict Management, a New Delhi-based think tank.
Rana knew Headley, 64, from their days together at boarding school in Pakistan.
Headley, who testified as a government witness at Rana’s trial, said he had used his friend’s Chicago-based immigration services firm as a cover to scout targets in India, by opening a branch in Mumbai.
Rana has said he visited Mumbai ahead of the attacks – and stayed at the luxury Taj Mahal Palace Hotel that would become the epicenter of the bloody siege – but denied involvement in the conspiracy.
Sahni said that more than 16 years after the attacks, Rana’s extradition is of “historical importance” rather than a source of any “live intelligence.”
But he added that handing him over has “a chilling effect” on others abroad who India seeks to put on trial.
Austrian woman on trial after repatriation from Syrian detention camp
- Evelyn T., who is accused of having been a member of a terrorist group from 2015 to 2017, could face up to 10 years in prison
- She left Austria for Syria’s then Daesh controlled area in 2016 to join her husband
VIENNA: An Austrian woman who was brought back alongside her son from a Syrian detention camp went on trial in Vienna on Wednesday, in the first such case in the country.
Since the Daesh group was ousted from its self-declared “caliphate” in 2019, the return of family members of fighters that were either captured or killed has been a thorny issue for European countries.
Evelyn T., 26, has been in detention since she was repatriated to Austria last month, while her son, seven, was placed in social services’ custody.
On Wednesday, she was expected to plead guilty in court to the charges of being part of a terrorist group and a criminal organization, according to her lawyer Anna Mair.
“She takes responsibility for what she has done... and she wants to lead a normal life in the future,” Mair said ahead of the trial’s opening.
Evelyn T., who is accused of having been a member of a terrorist group from 2015 to 2017, could face up to 10 years in prison.
She left Austria for Syria’s then Daesh controlled area in 2016 to join her husband, “supporting him psychologically and taking care of the household,” according to the charges.
Their son was born in 2017. The couple surrendered later that year, with Evelyn T. and her son ending up in a Kurdish-run detention camp for suspected militants.
The two were repatriated together with another woman, Maria G., and her two sons.
Maria, now 28, left Austria in 2017 to join Daesh in Syria. She remains free since her return, while an investigation is ongoing.
Last year, a Vienna court ordered that she and her sons be repatriated, stressing that it was “in the children’s greater interest.”
Austria’s foreign ministry had previously rejected her request to be repatriated, saying that only the children would be accepted.
The EU member previously repatriated several children.
Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands are among other countries that have repatriated relatives of militant fighters.
Many of the women returned have been charged with terrorism crimes and imprisoned.
EU countries set to approve first retaliation against US tariffs
- The approval will come on the day that Trump’s ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on the EU and dozens of countries took effect
- The European Commission proposed on Monday extra duties mostly of 25 percent on a range of US imports
BRUSSELS: European Union countries are expected to approve on Wednesday the bloc’s first countermeasures against US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, joining China and Canada in retaliating and escalating a conflict that could become a global trade war.
The approval will come on the day that Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs on the EU and dozens of countries took effect, including massive 104 percent duties on China, extending his tariff onslaught and spurring more widespread selling across financial markets.
The 27-nation bloc faces 25 percent import tariffs on steel and aluminum and cars as well as the new broader tariffs of 20 percent for almost all other goods under Trump’s policy to hit countries he says impose high barriers to US imports.
The European Commission, which coordinates EU trade policy, proposed on Monday extra duties mostly of 25 percent on a range of US imports in response specifically to the US metals tariffs. It is still assessing how to respond to the car and broader levies.
The imports include motorcycles, poultry, fruit, wood, clothing and dental floss, according to a document seen by Reuters. They totaled about €21 billion ($23 billion) last year, meaning the EU’s retaliation will be against goods worth less than the €26 billion of EU metals exports hit by US tariffs.
They are to enter force in stages – on April 15, May 16 and December 1.
A committee of trade experts from the EU’s 27 countries will vote on Wednesday afternoon on the Commission’s proposal, which will only be blocked if a “qualified majority” of 15 EU members representing 65 percent of the EU population vote against.
That is an unlikely event given the Commission has already canvassed EU members and refined an initial list from mid-March, removing US dairy and alcoholic drinks.
Major wine exporters France and Italy had expressed concern after Trump threatened to hit EU wine and spirits with a 200 percent tariff if the EU went ahead with its planned 50 percent duty on bourbon.
Trump has already responded to Beijing’s counter-tariffs announced last week, nearly doubling duties on Chinese imports. China has vowed to “fight to the end.”
Indonesia president says ready to temporarily shelter Gazans
- “We are ready to receive wounded victims,” Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto said
- Wounded Palestinians and “traumatized, orphaned children” would be prioritized, he said.
JAKARTA: Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto on Wednesday said he was prepared to grant temporary shelter to Palestinians affected by the war in Gaza between the Israeli military and the territory’s rulers Hamas.
Nearly 400,000 Gaza residents have been displaced in the weeks since Israel resumed military operations in the territory last month, according to the United Nations.
“We are ready to receive wounded victims,” Prabowo said before leaving for a Middle East visit to the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan.
“We are ready to send planes to transport them. We estimate the numbers may be 1,000 for the first wave.”
Wounded Palestinians and “traumatized, orphaned children” would be prioritized, he said.
He said he had instructed his foreign minister to talk with Palestinian officials and “parties in the region” on how to evacuate wounded or orphaned Gazans.
The victims would only be in Indonesia until they recovered and it was safe for their return.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, has consistently called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to Turkish media, Prabowo will be afforded the rare opportunity to address the Turkish parliament.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of the main backers of the Palestinian cause and visited Indonesia in February, where the pair pledged closer ties.
China vows ‘firm and forceful measures’ in response to new US tariffs
- China – Washington’s top economic rival but also a major trading partner – is the hardest hit
- Tariffs imposed on its products since Trump returned now reaching a staggering 104 percent
BEIJING: China vowed on Wednesday it would take “firm and forceful” steps to protect its interests, after steep US tariffs of 104 percent came into effect.
Following the sweeping 10 percent tariffs imposed over the weekend, rates on imports to the United States from exporters including the European Union and Japan rose further on Wednesday.
China – Washington’s top economic rival but also a major trading partner – is the hardest hit, with tariffs imposed on its products since Trump returned to the White House now reaching a staggering 104 percent.
In response, Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian insisted that “the Chinese people’s legitimate right to development is inalienable.”
“China’s sovereignty, security and development interests are inviolable,” he said.
“We will continue to take firm and forceful measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests,” Lin said.
Also on Wednesday, Beijing’s commerce ministry said the country had “firm will” to fight a trade war with Washington, state news agency Xinhua said.
“With firm will and abundant means, China will resolutely take countermeasures and fight till the end if the United States insists on further escalating economic and trade restrictive measures,” Xinhua quoted the ministry as saying.
