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Hashim Thaci Leader of KLA

Hashim Thaci (Albanian – Hashim Thaçi; sometimes Hashim Thaqi) (born 24 April 1968 in Brocna/Buroje in the municipality of Srbica [northwest of Drenica valley], Kosovo, Serbia) 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 Univeristy of Pristina. 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 politcal 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 "Gjarpëri" [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 Priština 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.

• PDK Partia Demokratike e Kosovës (in Albanian)
• Kryetari Thaçi: Populli i Kosovës dhe UÇK-ja ishin një A Thaçi interview by "Kosova Sot" daily (in Albanian)
• Hashim Thaci or When the Little Red-Cap’s Wolf is Tamed Article about Hashim Thaçi from "Axis Globe" by Can Karpat, AIA Balkanian Section (04/01/2006)
• Thaçi comments on the future of Kosovo at United States Institute of Peace