International war crimes prosecutors said on Monday that Kosovo’s former President Hashim Thaci controlled ethnic Albanian guerrillas and should be convicted of war crimes and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

Mr Thaci and three other ex-Kosovo Liberation Army commanders are charged with persecution, murder, torture and forced disappearances of people during and shortly after the 1998-99 uprising that eventually brought independence for the Albanian majority region from Serbia.

Prosecutor Kimberly West told the court in The Hague that “the accused committed crimes against their perceived opponents to take control over Kosovo”.

She added that in 1998 and 1999, more than 100 political opponents and perceived collaborators with Serbian security forces were killed, and hundreds were abused in and around 50 detention camps run by the KLA.

“This case is about the four accused’s goal to gain and exercise control over all of Kosovo,’’ Ms West said near the end of a nearly three-year trial at the special Kosovo war crimes court in The Hague.

Mr Thaci, 57, who served as prime minister, foreign minister and president of independent Kosovo between 2008 and 2020, and his co-accused denied all the charges.

Lawyers for Mr Thaci, expected to give their closing statements on Wednesday, earlier argued that Mr Thaci had no real authority over the KLA and its military commanders during the uprising and its aftermath.

Prosecutors say Mr Thaci and other KLA leaders waged a violent campaign targeting political opponents, as well as minority ethnic Serbs and Roma, to gain full control of Kosovo.

Most victims of persecution were members of Kosovo’s 90 per cent ethnic Albanian majority, the prosecution said.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, staffed by international judges and lawyers, was set up in 2015 to handle war crimes cases under Kosovo law against ex-KLA guerrillas.

Many Kosovars see the tribunal as biased against the KLA and its leaders as heroes who liberated Kosovo from repressive Serbian rule.

(Reuters/NAN)