Testimony of British John Duncan: I do not think Thaçi was the commander-in-chief of the KLA

Former British diplomat John Stewart Duncan is testifying at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, summoned by the defense of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi, accused of war crimes.

In the late 1990s, Duncan was a political advisor to former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark, who led the NATO air campaign against Serbian military targets in 1999.

At the beginning of his testimony, the defense asked him if he had also covered the work of the Kosovo Liberation Army during his activities - to which he answered 'yes'.

He said that the KLA - whose political leader was Thaçi - had a heterogeneous composition, "with people with different experiences and motives".

"We called it 'the army of those who had nothing.' Their aspirations were not the same. Their motive was not the same."

"When the ethnic cleansing began to escalate, the composition of the main members was very diverse: there were former Yugoslav Army soldiers, lawyers, doctors, journalists and other people, some with abused families. The reason they took up arms varied from person to person," Duncan confessed.

He underlined that the KLA had no hierarchy and that its real power lay with the zone commanders.

"That was the difficulty we faced there," Duncan said, because "they didn't have a hierarchical structure - they were organized differently."

According to him, the political leadership of the KLA, including Thaçi, was often unable to convince soldiers about important decisions, such as disarmament.

He said that Thaçi's role did not reflect political reality and that he did not have full legitimacy in society.

"There were several political forces there like the LDK, Mr. Rugova and others," Duncan said.

Asked by the defense whether he thought Thaçi was the commander-in-chief of the KLA, or commander-in-chief, he said 'no'.

"...because the way [the commanders] treated him during the negotiations was such that they treated him as a political wing, who had some kind of influence, but not as someone who had military powers."

"I have never seen [Thaci] give directives or orders," Duncan said.

"He wasn't very engaged, as I expect a professional politician to be," he added.

Duncan was also asked about Thaçi's relationship with KLA commander Agim Çeku.

"As members of a team - one with military matters, the other with political matters. That's the way I saw it. I didn't see any kind of great respect, everyone had their own responsibilities," he replied./ REL