Vjosa Osmani is Kosovo’s new president. She was elected by parliament as head of state in Pristina on Sunday at the suggestion of Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s ruling party Vetëvendosje. Osmani succeeds Hashim Thaçi, who resigned his duties in early November because the Kosovo Tribunal in The Hague will prosecute him for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The 38-year-old Osmani received 71 votes, a large majority in the parliament of 120 members. 82 deputies were present, 11 of them cast an invalid vote.
After the departure of Thaçi, Osmani as chairman of parliament already temporarily performed the honors. Until June 2020, the new president was vice-chairman of the liberal-conservative LDK, then ruling party, now in the opposition. After an argument within the LDK, she was expelled from the party.
Thaçi has to answer to the court in The Hague for possible war crimes committed during the struggle for independence of the Kosovar Albanians against Serbia in 1998 and 1999.
The former president of Kosovo has denied the charges and says he has nothing to hide. He has previously announced that he will fully cooperate with the tribunal. Kadri Veseli, the current leader of the Kosovar Democratic Party, has also been charged by the Kosovo Tribunal.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008 under Thaçi. He was the country’s prime minister since 2008 and became president in 2016.
What does Thaçi have to answer for?
- Kosovo was once part of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. In the 1990s, Yugoslavia fell apart, causing increasing pressure from the Serbs on the Kosovars. Thaçi was the leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that waged a war of independence against Serbia, in which thousands of people died and hundreds of thousands had to flee. The war ended in 1999 after NATO carried out bombing raids on Serb targets in Kosovo and Serbia.
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