Whatever the Verdict on Hashim Thaçi, Kosovo's History Will Not Be on Trial
Whatever judges decide about Hashim Thaçi, Kosovo's liberation remains separate. The trial asks only whether individual criminal responsibility has been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
The question that remains is perhaps the most uncomfortable of all.
If the judges ultimately convict Hashim Thaçi, what, exactly, will they have convicted?
The answer matters because it will shape not only Kosovo’s political future but also how generations yet unborn come to understand one of Europe’s defining conflicts at the end of the twentieth century.
It is tempting, particularly in societies that have survived war, to collapse every verdict into a judgment upon history itself. Heroes become incapable of wrongdoing. Opponents become incapable of truth. Every prosecution is interpreted as an attack upon the nation. Every acquittal becomes proof that no crime ever occurred. Such thinking may offer political comfort, but it bears little resemblance to either history or law.
The Kosovo Specialist Chambers were not established to determine whether Serbia oppressed Kosovo.
That question has long ceased to be legally controversial.
The systematic dismantling of Kosovo’s autonomy after 198…
