WRITER IN PICTURE DIFFECTION

1. Today, it is nine years since the political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the first president of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, was solemnly inaugurated president of the Republic of Kosovo in <x0 square> Skrrbeu” in Pristina.

The election of Hashim Thaci to the country's president in the Kosovo Assembly on February 26, 2016, at the April 8, 2016, high state ceremony symbolically synthesised his busy political path: from liberation to the highest constitutional representation in this high institutional mission Hashim Thaci embodyed the statesmanship that could bring national stability, strong international representation and leadership to confront Serbia in the process of dialogue. In the inauguration speech, President Thaci stressed: “I will be president of all citizens, unity, constitutionality and state dignity. ”

2. When on November 5, 2020, the Specialised Chambers Prosecutor at The Hague announced the warrant, Hashim Thaci did not expect international pressure. He sent a clear institutional and moral message:

“To protect the integrity of the presidency and preserve the dignity of the people and the state of Kosovo, I resign.” On the one hand, his voluntary surrender was, not an act of submission, but a continuation of the culture of freedom by other means: by trusting the state that helped create and international justice, which he had upheld in principle. But, on the other hand, this act scatters Hashim Thaci's basic paradox of imprisonment. The Special Court, which judges only KLA members, has been widely contested in Kosovo's public opinion due to unilateral character and lack of denouncing and judging Serbian state crimes. How can a man who helped free and establish a country end up in prison, under charges of war crimes? The move contains one of the deepest paradoxes in post-war Kosovo, but also the offensive and unilateral stance of the democratic world. Those who were aggressors are again in power in Serbia today. Those who were deliverers are in prison today at The Hague. In principle, no one disputes justice. But selective justice brings no just judgment, no satifation, no reconciliation. It brings new pain and symbolic violation of collective dignity.

3. Despite the accusations, Hashim Thaci is not abandoned to history. He remains a figure representing a whole generation of Albanian national movement. His stay at The Hague is evidence of his willingness to defend not only himself but also the principles upon which he built political life.

Thaci was not brought down by power by violence or by coup. He left the presidential office himself to enter a prison room, where history, justice and fate are being severely crashed. He was not arrested, he surrendered. He was not defeated, but he stands. In The Hague, Kosovo is facing the dilemma of how to preserve war truth while embracing “international justice”. On November 5, 2020, Kosovo did not lose just one president. Hashim Thaci is more than a name He is a living journey of a nation that fought for existence, created a state and, now, for four and a half years, is facing the Special Court in The Hague. And, as the logic and trajectory of his historic achievements, he, Hashim Thaci, always wins. /Periscope