On February 17, 2008, Hashim Thaçi stood at the podium of the Kosovo Assembly and read the words that would define his place in the history of Europe’s newest state. “We, the democratically elected leaders of our people, through this declaration, proclaim Kosovo an independent and democratic state,” Thaçi said. He was then 40 years old, the prime minister of Kosovo and the former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
His photograph in the Assembly became one of the defining images of February 17. Eighteen years later, another image of Thaçi enters Kosovo history. On September 16, 2026, he stood in a courtroom in The Hague and listened to a panel of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers find him guilty of war crimes. “The panel sentences you to a single sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment,” the verdict read. Neither photograph erases the other, but, as of this verdict, they will exist together. The question is what this does not only to Thaçi’s legacy, but also to the way the history of the state he helped create will be read.
WHAT DID THE HAGUE JUDGE?
Mark Ellis, director of the International Bar Association, says the legal answer leaves little room for ambiguity: these are two entirely separate issues. According to him, the Specialist Chambers were tasked with determining the criminal responsibility of four individuals – Thaçi and his fellow fighters, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selim and Jakup Krasniqi – and not with judging the state that was created later. “They found these four individuals guilty of war crimes and for their individual responsibility. That is what the law states. There should be no other impact on the state,” Ellis tells Radio Free Europe. The legal answer to independence was given years ago.
In 2010, the International Court of Justice found that the February 17 Declaration did not violate international law. The line was clearly drawn in the Specialist Chambers: the goal of Kosovo’s independence was not subject to criminal liability. The judgment addressed crimes committed against persons perceived as opponents of the KLA. However, what is clearly divided in a courtroom can more easily be united in the political battle over history.
A JUDGMENT THAT CAN TAKE ANOTHER LIFE
This is where, according to researcher Abit Hoxha of Agder University in Norway, the verdict could take on a new lease of life. Not by changing Kosovo’s legal status, but by entering into a much older conflict over how its independence is interpreted. Hoxha says the decision could leave “a big stain” on this history and expects Serbia and Russia, which continue to oppose Kosovo’s independence, to use Thaçi’s conviction to challenge the narrative on which Kosovo has built its statehood and to push this interpretation beyond them. “Countries like Cyprus, Romania, Spain, Greece… will find it much more difficult to recognize Kosovo’s independence, because of this argument. All the people who are opponents of Kosovo will say that the foundation of the Kosovo state was built on war crimes. That is the biggest danger I see,” Hoxha tells Radio Free Europe’s Expose program.
For the figure of Thaçi himself, Hoxha uses a stronger definition. He describes him as “the father of Kosovo’s independence” – not only for the fact that he read the Declaration, but for the role he played in the entire process that led to it. It is a role that, according to Hoxha, the verdict can complicate, but cannot erase from history. This is because Thaçi’s path crossed some of the decisive stages of Kosovo’s new history. From political activity and a leading role in the KLA, he moved on to international negotiations for Kosovo and, after the war, to head its institutions. He was prime minister when independence was declared, later president and one of the main figures in the dialogue with Serbia and in relations with the West.
TWO WAYS TO REMEMBER THAÇI
But this long political history also raises the question of how far the Hague verdict can be separated from Thaçi’s legacy. For researcher Armend Bekaj from Uppsala University in Sweden, there is no single answer to how Thaçi will be remembered. “For many, Hashim Thaçi will continue to be a hero of war and peace, but, at the same time, for many he will also be a person who was found guilty of war crimes. I believe that this court, unfortunately, has provided ample material for today’s and tomorrow’s politicians, academics, journalists, to write entire volumes on both sides,” Bekaj tells Exposé.
For those who will read Thaçi only through the verdict, Bekaj adds that the context should also be remembered: his path from the KLA to independence was paved with strong support from the West, above all from the United States. As evidence of this report, he also mentions the appearance in defense of Thaçi of former senior American officials, such as Wesley Clark and James Rubin. “Hashim Thaçi and other leaders of the KLA, and not only the KLA, have been partners at every step – from the time of civil resistance, armed resistance to the establishment of Kosovo as a state – they have worked in extraordinary closeness with Euro-Atlantic friends,” says Bekaj.
SHOULD THE WEST RE-READ THAT PERIOD?
This partnership extends the question beyond Thaçi himself. If he was one of the key figures with whom the United States and its allies worked on the road to independence, does the Hague verdict force the West to reread that period as well? Charles Kupchan, a former U.S. National Security Council official and professor at Georgetown University, doesn’t think so. “…because Thaçi made that transition, didn’t he? From a wartime leader, now convicted of atrocities, he became a civilian leader who helped Kosovo move toward independence and build its relations with the United States, with European powers and with others. So I don’t think that’s going to change,” Kupchan tells Exposé.
In his words, the verdict may be a short-term shock, but not a blow that will change Kosovo’s international position. He does not expect the withdrawal of recognitions, damage to partnerships with the West or the obstruction of the Euro-Atlantic path. According to him, the normalization process with Serbia is not in question either. In fact, in the long term, he sees the possibility of a positive effect, if the process is seen as evidence that justice is applied equally to all. “Kosovo was fighting to protect itself from ethnic cleansing and, for this reason, the war for independence was a just war. However, a just war does not justify war crimes. One injustice cannot be justified by another injustice. If Thaçi and other members of the KLA committed war crimes – even though the cause they were fighting for was just – then I think the court has done what it had to do,” says Kupchan.
FROM “GEORGE WASHINGTON OF KOSOVO” TO THE HAGUE
This contrast did not go unnoticed outside Kosovo. In reporting on the verdict, international media described Thaçi not only as a former president and former leader of the KLA, but also as one of the central figures of independence. AFP summed up the transformation in a headline: “From ‘Kosovo’s George Washington’ to convict in The Hague.” The comparison is related to a description that Joe Biden had used for Thaçi while he was vice president of the United States.
The Associated Press recalled that Thaçi, who returned from Switzerland to join the war in Kosovo, was later welcomed by Western leaders, participated in the Rambouillet negotiations in 1999 and was seen as one of the figures who could lead Kosovo to independence. The Guardian wrote that Thaçi, once a hardliner, later moved towards a more moderate political profile. The Times, too, summed up the contrast in its headline: “‘Snake’, Kosovo hero, convicted of war crimes.”
A LEGACY THAT NOW HAS TWO SIDES
When asked which image of Thaçi will carry more weight in a few decades – the man who helped lead Kosovo to independence or the man convicted of war crimes – Kupchan does not choose between the two. “As with other leaders who have done brave and valuable things, but who have also been accused of criminal acts, including war crimes, in the case of Thaçi there are both sides. It is a complicated legacy. Thaçi will be remembered for the role he played in leading Kosovo to independence. But, at the same time, his legacy will now also be connected to this verdict,” says Kupchan. (RFE)