Boston Herald: Will Biden save “George Washington of Kosovo”?

This man is Hashim Thaci, 52, Kosovo's pro-American president, who resigned on November 5th. Later, he was sent to the ban and flown to The Hague, Holland, to be tried before a special court sponsored by the European Union for actions during a brief and bad war. Thaci has denied all charges.

Thaci allegedly committed these crimes when he commanded the Kosovo Liberation Army, guerrilla uprisings that fought hard against Serbia in 1998-2000, supported by the United States. At that time, he was seen as a hero standing for freedom and tyranny.

His enemies, particularly Serbs, warned that a breakaway Kosovo from Serbia would eventually join Albania to form a larger “Albania”. This has not happened and may not happen now that Thaci, who favoured it, has been damaged.

The KLA was formed after late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic tried to ethnically clear Kosovo of Muslim Albanians, killing many of them and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to save their lives in neighbouring Albania, northern Macedonia and Montenegro.

I was there reporting when US planes flew from Albania to Serbia. I was also at the border crossings, when thousands of frightened women, children and elders fled to Albania from Serbs advancing. It looked like something from World War II.

Now, after years of peace, they flock to Albania again, only this time they go as tourists headed towards Albanian beaches along the Adriatic Sea.

Milosevic's decision to force Kosovars to leave their homeland led to Serbia's bombing by Bill Clinton, supported by Biden, and the United States-dominated NATO. Beden, then part of the Senate, co-sponsored a resolution with which air strikes against Serbia were authorised.

Bombing and threatening that the American combat forces would get into clashes with American helicopters “Blackhawk<18x1> and “Apache” were listed in several locations in Albania and brought Milosevic to his knees and caused Kosovo to emerge as independent entities, like other former Yugoslav provinces.

Milosevic was arrested in 2001 and charged with war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo during the breakup of Yugoslavia. He died in a prison cell in The Hague in 2006 during his trial.

The United States at the time praised Thaci and the KLA as good “” in the fight against Milosevic.

There is no doubt that barbarism has been committed by both sides.

Critics have stressed that charges are attempts to rewrite history by equate Kosovo with the aggressor Serbia. It's like you blame the United States and Japan together for the sneaky Japanese attack on “Pearl Harbor”.

Thaci, who has been living in Switzerland, returned to Kosovo when the fighting erupted first and eventually became commander of the KLA. After the fighting ended, he rose to become the first prime minister of an independent Kosovo. He was elected president in 2016.

Beden, known for Kosovo, strengthened earlier ties when he visited the war-torn country with his son Beua Biden in 2001, the time he met with Thaci for the first time. The Bidens went to Camp Bondsteel, the main base of the United States as part of KFOR, the NATO peacekeeping force.

Beau Biden had voluntarily served as adviser to Kosovo's new legal system, and Joe Biden, then in the Senate, accompanied him.

Beden as vice president met again with Prime Minister Thaci in Washington in 2010. That was when Biden compared George Washington.

Then in 2016, Biden, still vice president, visited Kosovo again. This time for an emotional event, the appointment of a national route leading to Camp Bonsteel by the name of Beau Biden, who died of cancer in 2015.

Thaci, as president, played a key role in changing the road and building a monument to Beau Biden.

In a moving statement, Bideny appreciated Thaci for showing the great “gux1> to bring democracy to Kosovo.

Now Biden goes to Thaci's White House on trial. /Express (Translating: Nasuf Abdeli)