According to Beqe Cufaj the number of news reports about Hashim Thaci’s election for president was minor and all the published reports mentioned organized crime, corruption, the time when he led rebels and the time he was under Rugova’s shadow. They especially mentioned Dick Marty’s report and the special court, which might even raise charges against Thaci. “The fact that all this is not an invention of his enemies, or as his minions would call them “spies” of the West, was proved by the Chief Prosecutor of the special court, who told BIRN journalists and the political class in Pristina that Hashim, the President, does not enjoy any kind of immunity if evidence for indictment is to be found,” Cufaj writes. He adds that all Thaci’s visits to the mountains, restaurants, small cities and neighborhoods, houses of martyrs are in vain “because the shadow of the Hague is following him wherever he goes.”
Now, he notes, a month before Thaci’s inauguration as President, one cannot but ask himself if Kosovo should endure yet more humiliation and tainting of its image with the special court and announcements for indictments of Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli and the other powerful members of the Democratic Party of Kosovo as well as other segments of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
We all know who would be pleased with this, therefore we do not have to mention names, writes Cufaj concluding that it is all very ironic. “Are Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli and Xhavit Haliti so naïve to offer them this luxury?” he asks. According to him, protesting by supporters of the Vetevendosje movement will target such indictments more than it will the members of the parties that they currently lead. But this is not important, concludes Cufaj, what is important is that Kosovo will have to cope with its image being tainted until the special court starts its work. And Kosovo’s name is linked to Hashim’s, the president. A great price for a position and a challenge, both for Kosovo and Hashim,” writes Cufaj.
