The trial in The Hague against former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi and other former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has prompted strong reactions from prominent American figures.
Former US Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin, in an interview with the Atlantic Council, warned that a possible conviction of Thaçi and his co-combatants would be "a true tragedy for Kosovo and a black mark on international justice."
"I pray that this does not happen. It would be a tragedy for the people who fought and gave their lives for freedom. To find representatives of millions of Kosovo Albanians guilty without evidence would be a grave stain on the international legal system and would undermine the readiness to establish similar tribunals in the future," Rubin declared.
He stressed that an unjust decision would undermine trust in international justice institutions, recalling his experience during the war in Kosovo as a spokesman for the US State Department and his close cooperation with President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The former US envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Grenell, reacted in the same vein, through a harsh statement criticizing the European approach to the judicial process in The Hague.
“There are many reasons why Europe is failing. One example is the fact that so many European politicians remain silent while a former head of state is being held in The Hague for five years without a trial, and now the process is being dragged out even further. This is a brutal, archaic, elite-controlled system. This is not justice. No one should be taking legal advice from Europe anymore. I hope Hashim Thaçi sues everyone in an American court when he is released – after all, it is the American taxpayer who is funding this process,” Grenell wrote.
