The penultimate word about Thaçi

The Kosovo Tribunal's verdict against the former Kosovo rebel leader Hashim Thaçi was legally only the penultimate word. An appeal is pending. Given the evidence, it seems right and proper that Thaçi has now been convicted.

At least based on current knowledge, it also seems unlikely that an appeal could end in an acquittal. Whether the length of 25 years in prison is proportionate to the punishments for Serbian war criminals should also be debated in the light of history.

The verdict should not lead to blurring the historical proportions of what happened in Kosovo in 1999. The conflict was triggered by the Greater Serbia policy of the Belgrade potentate Slobodan Milošević, who died in 2006. Serbian security forces have committed far greater crimes than those accused of the “Kosovo Liberation Army” (KLA).

Therefore, the court did well to emphasize that neither the Kosovo Albanians nor the KLA and their fight for independence were on trial in The Hague. Because this fight was as inevitable as it was justified in the face of Serbian oppression.