One Career: Hashim Thaqi

POLITICIAN BY FORCE

Simultaneously with intense talks between representatives of Russia, the European Union and the United States, to identify a political resolution for the Kosovo crisis, western officials are trying to reach a compromise for an internal Albanian dispute, the major protagonists of which are the once unchallenged leader of the Kosovo Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova, reputed to be a moderate politician, and representative of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), hardliner Hashim Thaqi.

Thaqi keeps supporting the continuation of the bombing of Yugoslavia, calling on NATO not to make any compromise with the authorities in Belgrade. He urges NATO to establish a buffer zone on the administrative border between Kosovo and Serbia. In his interview to Reuters, on June 1, Thaqi claimed that NATO officials agreed to consider his proposal. The KLA's disarmament is not going to be a problem, if the conflict is ended under NATO's terms, said Thaqi, and promised to EU ministers that he would respect the international community's principles and obligations provided by the Rambouillet agreement.

Thaqi forced himself on the Kosovo Albanian political scene at the beginning of this year, during the preparations for talks on the Kosovo crisis in Rambouillet and Paris. With the West's support, he managed to become the head of the Albanian negotiating team and suppress Rugova. After that, Thaqi, against whom the Yugoslav authorities issued a warrant on March 9, was accepted by western officials as one of the signatories of the Rambouillet settlement, and the head of the Kosovo Albanian delegation to the talks, which were held in France, in February and March.

The major practical problem Thaqi is facing in his bid to maintain the leading position is that he, unlike Rugova, has never confirmed his legitimacy in the parallel Albanian elections in Kosovo. His political position, with the West's blessing, was imposed by the power of KLA weapons and thanks to the support of Albanian opposition parties, which were at loggerheads with Rugova.

Thaqi emerged on the Kosovo Albanian political scene a year ago, when he became a member of the rebel organization's headquarters and the head of its political administration. The KLA's news agency Kosova Pres, formed by the organization at the beginning of this year, published as one of its first news on March 2, that the KLA headquarters had named Thaqi the prime minister of Kosovo's interim government, supposed to include representatives of the KLA, the United Democratic Movement, the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo and independent politicians.

The Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, headed by Rugova, did not join the government. Thaqi planned to give one ministerial seat to Rugova's party. The Kosovo Albanian government in exile, the members of which are mostly Rugova's backers, and which is headed by Bujar Bukoshi, was not disbanded. Basically, the Kosovo Albanians now have two governments. Bukoshi's cabinet was formed after the parallel elections in Kosovo, while the KLA and the West imposed the other.

Thaqi was born on April 24, 1968, in the village of Broja, situated in the Serbica municipality in the Kosovo region of Drenica. He studied history and graduated from the Pristina's Philosophy College, where he was one of the Albanian student leaders, and the first student president of the parallel university in Pristina. The Kosovo Albanians, bitter over the 1989 annulment of the province's autonomy, established in early 1990 underground administrative and educational institutions. Thaqi studied political sciences in Austria and Switzerland, where he joined the Kosovo Albanian political emigration. He was one of the founders of the Marxist-Leninist organization People's Movement of Kosovo, which is believed to have created the KLA.

According to the Vreme weekly of Belgrade, Thaqi was the commander of the KLA operations zone in Malisevo, in Kosovo, and a member of the so-called Drenica group, established by Adem Jashari in 1993. He and his group were trained in Albania for an armed struggle against Serbian forces in Kosovo. During training he earned the nickname Snake.

During a trial of 15 Kosovo Albanians, the Pristina-based district court sentenced Thaqi in absentia on July 11, 1997. Thaqi was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison. Others were sentenced to jail terms between 15 and 20 years. Warrants were issued against the accused. The court charged them with terrorist acts near Glogovac, in 1993, when three Serbian policemen were killed, and an attack on an official vehicle in Kosovska Mitrovica. The Yugoslav police believe that Thaqi is one of the leaders of Albanian drug dealers, which, according to the Belgrade authorities' claims and findings by several European police departments, funds the KLA's armament.

On March 9, 1999, the Serbian interior ministry again issued a warrant for Thaqi and seven other "Albanian terrorists." On March 16, the Yugoslav authorities asked Interpol to arrest Thaqi and extradite him to Yugoslavia. At the time, Thaqi was heading the Kosovo Albanian delegation, which arrived in Paris for talks on Kosovo.

(Beta)

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