Hashim Thaçi

Hashim Thaçi
File:Hashim Thaci.jpg
Prime Minister of Kosovo
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 January 2008
President	Fatmir Sejdiu
Deputy	Hajredin Kuçi
Preceded by	Agim Çeku
In office 02 April 1999 – 01 February 2000
President	Ibrahim Rugova
Preceded by	Bujar Bukoshi
Succeeded by	Nexhat Daci
Personal details
Born	(1968-04-24) 24 April 1968 Buroja, SAP Kosovo, Yugoslavia
Political party	PDK

Hashim Thaçi (Serbo-Croat: Hašim Tači) (sometimes also spelled as Thaqi; Thaci in English-language media) (born 24 April, 1968) is the Prime Minister of Kosovo, the President of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

Early life and education

Thaçi was born in Buroja in the municipality of Srbica, northwest of Drenica valley, in the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo (then an autonomous province within the Serbian republic of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).

He studied philosophy and history at the University of Priština. During his university years, he was an Albanian student leader and the first student president of the parallel Albanian University of Prishtina that broke off in 1989 (and organised in the early 1990s) from the official University due to Kosovar Albanians' protest of Slobodan Milošević's new imposed status of Kosovo and Metohija.

By 1993, Thaçi joined the Kosovar Albanian political emigration in Switzerland, where he pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Zurich in the history and international relations departments.. There he became one of the founders of the People's Movement of Kosovo (LPK), a Marxist-Leninist political party in Kosovo devoted to Albanian popular nationalism: to achieve independence for Albanians in relevant areas where they are populous, though not necessarily to create a single nation state.

Role in KLA

In 1993, Thaçi became a member of the inner circle of the KLA. Thaçi (nom de guerre "Gjarpëri" [the Snake]) was responsible for securing financial means, training and armament of recruits, teaching them in Albania under the auspices of its Kosovar-sympathetic government, to be dispatched to Kosovo. In 1997, Thaçi was tried in absentia and convicted by the Serbian authorities in Priština for acts of terrorism associated with his activities in the KLA.

In March 1999, Hashim Thaçi was promoted into a political leader of the KLA and as such participated at the Rambouillet negotiations as the leader of the Kosovar Albanian team. Thaçi was perceived by western diplomats during the negotiations as the "voice of reason" within the KLA: his attendance at the negotiations demonstrated a willingness to accept autonomy for Kosovo within Serbia at a time when other leaders within the KLA rejected any solution short of full national independence. Thaçi emerged from the final diplomatic settlement as the leader of the strongest faction within a KLA rife with factionalism. He moved quickly to consolidate power, unilaterally naming himself prime minister within a provisional government and ordering the assassination of the leaders of rival armed factions.

Criminal activities

Thaci is known to have extensive criminal links. During the period of time when Thaci was head of the Kosovo Liberation Army, it was reported by the Washington Times to be financing its activities by trafficking heroin and cocaine into western Europe. While the KLA was officially disbanded at the end of armed conflict in Kosovo in 1999, the new Kosovo Protection Force was composed primarily of former KLA fighters and the Democratic Party of Kosovo was formed largely from the political leadership of the KLA. A near monopoly on the means of force based on the absorption of the KLA into the KPF allowed the Democratic Party of Kosovo to seize near complete control of the machinery of government at the municipal level. The Democratic Party of Kosovo has regularly employed violence and intimidation of political rivals to maintain local political control and protect criminal enterprises which depend upon cooperation from friendly local authorities. Thaçi in particular is seen as being central to the criminal activites of the Kosovo Protection Force, who were reportedly extorting money from businessmen under the guise of "taxes" for Thaçi's self appointed government. The fact that the Democratic Party of Kosovo was seen as both corrupt and criminal lead directly to the electoral defeat of the DPK in the first free elections in the province in 2001. The BBC stated at the time, " The tumbling reputation of the former KLA was to have a disastrous effect on the PDK because of the perceived overlap between its political leadership and post-KLA organised crime."

Victory in 2007 election and declaration of Kosovar Independence

Kosovo elections were held on 17 November 2007. After early results based on 90 per cent of the votes, Hashim Thaçi who was on course to gain 34 per cent, claimed victory for PDK, the Albanian Democratic Party. He stated his intention to declare independence without delay on 10 December, the date set by the United Nations for the end of negotiations with Serbia. Thaçi is likely to form a coalition with President Fatmir Sejdiu's Democratic League which was in second place with 22 percent of the vote. At 45 per cent, the turnout at the election was particularly low with most Serbs refusing to vote.

However, on 19 November 2007, several EU foreign ministers warned Thaçi and his Albanian allies not to go ahead with their declaration of independence without consultations. Luxembourg's Jean Asselborn and Sweden's Carl Bildt urged the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) not to make any hasty moves while EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana stressed the importance of proper preparations prior to formal independence. After EU talks on Kosovo in London on 19 November 2007, the UK's Europe minister, Jim Murphy, said independence without foreign support could isolate the breakaway province.

Hashim Thaci was designated as the next leader of Kosovo's government on December 11, 2007 by Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and told to form a government "as soon as possible". His Democratic Party of Kosovo has begun coalition talks with the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) as well as the Alliance for New Kosovo. The parties all together control 75 seats of 120 in the assembly. On January 9 2008, Thaçi was elected as Prime Minister by parliament, with 85 votes in favor and 22 against. On this occasion he stated his intention to achieve independence for Kosovo in the first half of 2008. On February 16, 2008, Thaçi announced that the next day, February 17, would be key for "implementing the will of the citizens of Kosovo", strongly implying the region would declare independence. After the February 17, 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence Thaçi became Prime Minister of the newly independent state.

External links

• PDK Partia Demokratike e Kosovës (in Albanian)
• Kryetari Thaçi: Populli i Kosovës dhe UÇK-ja ishin një A Thaçi interview by "Kosova Sot" daily (in Albanian)
• Hashim Thaci or When the Little Red-Cap’s Wolf is Tamed Article about Hashim Thaçi from "Axis Globe" by Can Karpat, AIA Balkanian Section (04/01/2006)
• Thaçi comments on the future of Kosovo at United States Institute of Peace