Kosovo Liberation Army

A poster in Pristina in July 2020 describing Thaci and Veseli as heroes. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ.

It was June 13, 1999, and Uli Reinhardt, a photojournalist from the German news magazine Stern was due to meet his colleague Gabriel Gruener at 6pm in the southern Kosovo city of Prizren.

But Gruener would never arrive for the meeting, and could not be contacted by mobile phone because Kosovo's telecommunications system had been damaged in the war.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers published on Monday a redacted decision by a pre-trial judge confirming an indictment against former President Hashim Thaci and three former fellow guerrilla commanders accusing them of crimes against humanity and war crimes during and after the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

"The voices of the victims are indispensable to justice."

These were the words of the president of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Ekaterina Trendafilova, when she called on victims of crimes allegedly committed by four former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas who have since become senior politicians to participate in their war crimes case at the Hague-based court.

The Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor's Office on Monday urged the pre-trial judge in the case against Hashim Thaci and three other wartime Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas, all of whom are now senior politicians, that the start of the trial should not be subjected to delays until 2022 as the defence has requested.

The proposed Draft Law on Protection of the Kosovo Liberation Army's Values failed to pass on Thursday after only 35 MPs out of a total of 120 lawmakers in the Kosovo Assembly voted in favour.

"A total of 36 deputies participated [in the vote], 35 votes in favour, one against and no abstentions," said Kosovo Assembly speaker Vjosa Osmani.

After more than 20 years spent in Kosovo's political arena, President Hashim Thaci on Thursday announced that he will no longer be involved in politics once his mandate ends in April next year.

Kosovo parliament speaker Vjosa Osmani has reacted with fury to claims that her family once worked for the Serbian police when the country was under Yugoslav rule, after President Hashim Thaci repeated the allegation on Tuesday.

"Tonight, the snake tried to bite the honour of my family," Osmani wrote on Facebook, referring to Thaci by his wartime nickname of "The Snake".

A group of over 40 civil society organisations in Kosovo said in a joint statement on Thursday that Shkelzen Gashi has been "threatened and insulted in the worst way by the general public, but also by many personalities and politicians including President Hashim Thaci".

But last week, Kosovo's government decided to reopen it for visitors and to begin transforming it into a museum. The government tasked a team of officials from Ministry of Culture, including cultural heritage experts, to analyse what is needed and prepare the building for reopening.