DREAM / The Prime Minister resigns and wakes up under the Parisian bridge!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

"Thaci did not give the impression of a military leader", Hill in The Hague: When the KLA's first contacts with the Americans were established

2025-11-10 17:57:07Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"Thaci did not give the impression of a military leader", Hill in The
Christopher Hill

Former US ambassador to Belgrade, Christopher Hill, testified in The Hague about the first contacts of US diplomacy with the Kosovo Liberation Army, saying that they were established by diplomat Robert Gelbard.

"Robert Gelbard had several meetings with Albanians in Switzerland who claimed to be representatives of the KLA, but there was no evidence that they were actually its representatives ," Hill stated.

He admitted that at first it was difficult to identify a clear leadership of the KLA. “There was an inability and an impossibility to find a leader who could speak with authority.”

Hill indicated that Gelbard had described the KLA as a "terrorist organization," based on his experience in Latin America, a statement that, according to many critics of the time, may have influenced the Serbian attack on the Jashari family.

"There was a lot of criticism for Gelbard's statement that the KLA was a terrorist organization and there were rumors that this had accelerated this event. Gelbard seemed to have given the green light for this to happen," Hill said.

However, the former ambassador stressed that there is no evidence of such a thing, but admitted that the American diplomat's statements could have been interpreted as a signal from Belgrade to act.

After the attack on Prekaz, Hill said that Gelbard changed his stance and became tougher on the Serbian regime.

"After the events in Prekaz, he took a much tougher stance towards the Serbs and had a strong conversation with Milosevic ," he added.

During his testimony, Hill spoke about his first meeting with Hashim Thaçi in 1998, describing him as a person who spoke calmly and with restraint.

"I got the impression that he was more for a university environment than a military environment," the American diplomat said.

Asked if he had the impression that Thaçi was the person who controlled the KLA, Hill stressed that he had no basis for thinking this.

"He was among the three people who came, who I met. But I didn't get the impression that he was a person who had control over this large organization, or who was running it. There was no basis for that," Hill testified.

Following the hearing, Ambassador Hill was questioned by the defense about the allegations made by then-Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic regarding Hashim Thaci during a meeting between them in the fall of 1998.

"Not only did I appreciate that Thaçi was not the person that Milosevic described, but I had not heard this from anyone and I think it is important that all of this is understood, because during that entire time I was in contact with President Ibrahim Rugova, and he had numerous opportunities to denounce people by name, but he did not ," Hill said.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×