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Hashim Thaci (Full Albanian variation: Hashim Thaçi; sometimes
Hashim Thaqi, Serbo-Croat: Haim Taèi) (born 24 April 1968 in Buroje/Brocna
in the municipality of Srbica (northwest of Drenica valley], Kosovo,
Serbia, Yugoslavia) is the president of the Democratic Party of
Kosovo and former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Before Thaci emigrated to Switzerland, he studied philosophy and
history at the University of Pritina. By 1993, Thaçi joined the
Kosovar Albanian political emigration in Switzerland. There he
became one of the founding fathers of the People's Movement of
Kosovo (LPK), a political party in Kosovo. Its ideology lied in
Albanian nationalism and the plight to unify all Albanian-populated
areas into one state. In 1993, Thaci was sent in and became a member
of the inner circle of the KLA. Thaçi (nom de guerre "Gjarperi" [the
Snake]) was responsible for securing financial means, training and
armament of recruits, teaching them in Albania under the shield of
its Kosovar-aims-sympathetic government, to be dispatched to Kosovo.
In July of 1997 Serb judges at the District Court of Pritina
sentenced Thaci to 10 years of prison in absentia, accused to have
committed criminal acts of terrorism It is because of this that on
11th July 1997 Thaci and his Drenica unit went into hiding in the
woodlands in Drenica, although they continued to often visit Albania
and Switzerland, not remaining in Kosovo in hiding. During 90's
judges in Kosovo courts were entirely Serbs and most of them loyal
to Slobodan Milosevic. In February of 1998 the government in
Belgrade headed by Slobodan Milosevic issued an arrest warrant under
the condemnation for having ambushed and attacked patrolling Serbian
policemen.
In March 1999 Hashim Thaçi was promoted into a political leader of
the KLA and as such participated at the Rambouillet negotiations as
the leader of the Kosovar Albanian team. At present, he leads the
major opposition political party in Kosovo and is a leading member
of the Kosovo team in the internationally-mediated process of
negotiations for the final status of Kosovo.
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