Thaci, Hashim

▪ 2009

born April 24, 1968, the village of Brocna, Yugos. [now Buroje/Brocna, Kosovo]

      On Jan. 9, 2008, former rebel leader Hashim Thaci was elected prime minister of Kosovo by a majority vote in the parliament. The following month, on February 17, Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia.

      Thaci was born in the Drenica valley, west of Pristina (the capital). This region, historically restive to Serbian rule, became the birthplace in the early 1990s of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), an ethnically Albanian guerrilla movement fighting to end Serbian control of the province. Thaci studied philosophy and history at the University of Pristina and enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Zürich, where he studied Balkan history and international relations. In Pristina and Zürich he was active among Kosovo Albanian (Kosovar) political groups. He became cofounder of the organization People's Movement of Kosovo, which analysts believed created that group's paramilitary wing, the KLA. Known as “the snake,” Thaci allegedly secured financing for the KLA's training and arms and engaged in a number of terrorist actions in Kosovo. Local and international media reported that Thaci's alleged criminal activities accounted for about 15% of the province's prostitution operations and arms, oil, and cigarette smuggling.

      In July 1997 the District Court of Pristina sentenced Thaci in absentia to 10 years in prison for “criminal acts of terrorism.” According to former KLA officials, Thaci allegedly ordered the assassination of his officers and other potential Kosovar political leaders and military commanders. Bujar Bukoshi, who served (1991–2000) as prime minister of the Kosovar government in exile, declared that “cadavers have never been an obstacle to Thaci's career.” In 1997 several Western governments named the KLA a terrorist organization, but subsequent to Serbia's brutal crackdown (1998–99) on dissent, which was followed by NATO armed intervention, the KLA was seen as a resistance-liberation movement, with Thaci as its leader.

      Thaci gained recognition at the international conference in Rambouillet, France, as leader of the Kosovar Albanian negotiating team and thus marginalized Ibrahim Rugova, who had long been regarded as a pacifist and architect of Kosovo's independence drive. During the negotiations between Kosovar leaders and Serbia, Western diplomats came to see Thaci as a “voice of reason,” and he emerged from the final diplomatic settlement not only as the leader of the strongest faction within a sharply divided KLA but also as the Kosovar political leader with the greatest influence. Serbia's refusal to sign the peace accords was followed by NATO air strikes that led to Serbia's withdrawal from Kosovo in June 1999. Thereafter, Kosovo became an international protectorate.

      Thaci's tenure as prime minister was rife with controversy, however, and violence against opposition leaders continued. Organized crime remained a chief concern as the unemployment rate exceeded 40%. In addition, Thaci was unable to convince the country's Serb minority (and others, such as Romany and Turks) that Kosovo was not only home to the Albanian majority but their home as well.

Milan Andrejevich

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