The former supreme commander of NATO’s Allied Forces, Wesley Clark, for Europe, continued the second day of his testimony at the Special Court in The Hague, in defense of the former president of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi.
Clark spoke about the meeting he had with Thaçi during the Rambuje negotiations, stressing that there were no instruments to cooperate with the KLA, but that the meeting was necessary due to the circumstances and their availability.
He clarified that he did not know how the KLA was armed, but he believed that it had secured weapons and recruited, since the Serbian side refused to sign the Rambuje agreement.
Clark stood by earlier statements that the violence of the summer and fall of 1999 in Kosovo was a personal conflict between neighbors and that KLA leaders were not responsible for it.
Asked about his statement in the “Shekulli” newspaper in 1999, where he had said that there was no evidence that the KLA had committed ethnic cleansing against Serbs, Clark repeated that there was no evidence of this, and there were even indications to the contrary.
He referred to claims at the time about the deportation of around 170,000 Serbs, stressing that there was no evidence that the KLA was responsible.
In his testimony, Wesley Clark, retired American general, in The Hague also spoke about his concerns in 1999-2000 regarding the deployment of NATO peacekeeping troops in Kosovo and the possibility that Serbia would attempt to return.
He clarified that he did not think that Serbia would return, but as a general it was his duty to assess the risks, since there was no peace agreement until September 1999, while according to him, the uncertain situation continued until the declaration of Kosovo’s independence in 2008.
The former American General also mentioned the negative role of Russia, which, according to him, aimed to discredit the NATO operation in Kosovo.
“I was worried that it was my responsibility. That when this conflict ends, I end up with Russia’s efforts to discredit and destroy the NATO operation. We have never fully discovered the truth behind the airport incident. We knew that Colonel-General Ivanov, who was one of the leaders at that time, was decorated by the Kremlin for this operation, which was considered by them to be a tremendous success. But thanks to Mike Jackson, who was on the Russians’ side were somehow caught at the airport and on the morning of June 11, Friday, we started to receive information that it was not just about a battalion, it was about a whole detailed plan after the operation where the idea of this prepared Russian division was to enter Kosovo”
Clark recalled the case of the Pristina airport, where Russian forces had attempted to enter Kosovo, describing it as an operation planned in detail, but which was neutralized thanks to the intervention of British commander Mike Jackson.
He emphasized that his responsibility as a general was to ensure that Serbia did not return to Kosovo, applying experiences gained from previous operations in Vietnam, Haiti and Bosnia. Clark described Slobodan Milosevic as a cunning figure, but added that Serbia had no chance of coming back after the end of the war.
Following the testimony, Clark said that Hashim Thaçi was not the military commander of the KLA and that the mistakes of individuals should not be attributed to him, since according to him Thaçi had no control over persons who may have committed acts of violence.
General Clark said that it was part of his responsibilities as a general to take all the responsibilities and make all the necessary planning in such a way as to ensure that Serbia would not return to Kosovo.
“For the NATO command, it was that we would do everything possible to succeed with our operation, from the very beginning I have implemented those solutions that I have drawn from my experience in Vietnam from my military experience from Haiti from the operations in Bosnia,” he said.
General Clark said that during the war years in Kosovo, he was prepared for any attack that the forces of the Serbian regime could make against the Kosovar people.
“We would do whatever we could to achieve our mission,” Clark said. Besides, he said that in Kosovo, there was no peace agreement until September 1999, even as Clark says, a similar situation continued until the declaration of the country’s independence in 2008.
General Clark is expected to be the last witness in this process, after which the case will move to the final stage of closings by the parties, before the announcement of the decision by the court. After the end of his testimony, the Conference will be held on November 19 for the progress of the case, while the session scheduled for November 21 has been canceled.
