Hashim Thaci Prime Minister of Kosovo Date of Birth: 24.04.1968 Country: Serbia

Biography of Hashim Thaci

Hashim Thaci, born on April 24, 1968, in the village of Brokna in the municipality of Srbica, Kosovo, was the first Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed state of Kosovo. He served as Prime Minister of the autonomous province of Kosovo from January to February 2008. Thaci held various political positions throughout his career, including being the Chairman of the Democratic Progress Party of Kosovo, which later transformed into the Democratic Party of Kosovo. He also served as the Prime Minister of the temporary government of Kosovo, which he established himself, from 1999 to 2000. Thaci was a former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Despite not receiving a full education, according to local residents, Thaci completed a few classes in secondary school. He gained a reputation for his involvement in fights in bars in Srbica and Kosovska Mitrovica. It is said that he frequently stole goods from sellers and buyers at the Mitrovica market. However, according to his official biography, Thaci graduated from the University of Pristina, where he studied philosophy and history, and later enrolled at the University of Zurich to study the history of Southeastern Europe and international relations.

During his time at the University of Pristina in 1989, when the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic, revoked Kosovo's autonomous status, Thaci became one of the leaders of the Albanian student resistance movement. He also became the first president of the "parallel" university in Pristina. In the early 1990s, Albanians in Kosovo established their own underground education system, with around 200,000 students and 20,000 university students. The official authorities unsuccessfully tried to suppress these "parallel" institutions. Experts believe that the parallel education system became part of the Kosovo Albanians' struggle for independence. From 1992, Thaci participated in the activities of illegal armed formations in Kosovo. In May 1993, he was involved in a terrorist attack in the village of Glogovac, resulting in the death of three Serbian policemen. That same year, Thaci went underground and moved to Switzerland. In the University of Zurich, he became one of the founders of the radical Marxist-Leninist circle called the People's Movement of Kosovo, which studied the experience of building socialism in neighboring Albania.

In 1993, Thaci became one of the creators of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Among his comrades, he was known by the nickname "Snake" (Gjarperi). Thaci was responsible for securing the organization's financial resources and the training and arming of its members. After completing a combat training course in Albania, Thaci's group, operating in the Drenica region, carried out several terrorist attacks in Kosovo. Furthermore, according to some reports, Thaci controlled about 10-15 percent of the criminal business in Kosovo, allegedly earning money from drug trafficking, prostitution, arms and tobacco smuggling, car theft, and oil products. Thaci was rumored to have relationships with organized crime groups in the Czech Republic and Macedonia, and his sister married one of the prominent Albanian mafia members. In 1997, the District Court of Pristina sentenced Thaci to 10 years in prison for terrorism, and an international arrest warrant was issued the following year. However, the police were unable to capture him. In 1997-1998, fierce clashes between the Serbian police, Yugoslav army, and the Kosovo Liberation Army led to tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanians joining the latter. In the summer of 1998, Thaci focused on reorganizing the KLA, transforming it from a terrorist organization into a resistance movement.

By early 1999, Thaci became one of the most influential field commanders in Kosovo. As the political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, he led the Albanian delegation in negotiations in Rambouillet. According to experts, it was thanks to these negotiations that the KLA gained international recognition. However, the Rambouillet agreement also included the creation of a future temporary government for Kosovo, which was supposed to be led by a candidate from the KLA. According to experts, initially, it was planned for the Chief of Staff of the KLA, Jakup Krasniqi, to become the head of the government. After NATO began its bombing campaign against Serbia, on April 2, 1999, Thaci unilaterally formed a transitional government, appointing himself as Prime Minister and his uncle as Minister of Defense. He also sent his own commissioners to most municipalities in Kosovo. However, the chairman of the influential Albanian party, the Democratic Union of Kosovo, and the president of the unrecognized Republic, Ibrahim Rugova, refused to recognize Thaci's transitional government and insisted on the legitimacy of the government in exile led by Bujar Bukoshi. Eventually, on December 15, 1999, an agreement was reached to voluntarily dissolve both governments. Thaci complied with the agreement by dissolving his own government by February 1, 2000, while Rugova's supporters attempted to extend the powers of the Bukoshi cabinet. However, after an additional two-day period granted by the head of the UN Mission in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, they also agreed to transfer power to the Interim Administrative Council (IAC) and the Joint Interim Administrative Structure (JIAS), created under the auspices of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

In June 1999, Thaci signed an agreement on demilitarization and transformation, which officially dissolved the KLA on September 20, 1999. However, according to experts, most former KLA members joined the security structures created by the UN Mission in Kosovo, such as the Kosovo Police Service and the Kosovo Protection Corps. In March 1999, Thaci formed his own Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK), which absorbed the Democratic Union Party and later transformed into the Democratic Party of Kosovo. In the local elections held in October 2000, the DPK received 26.95 percent of the votes, placing second after Rugova's DSK, which received 58.13 percent.

In November 2001, during the parliamentary elections in Kosovo, Thaci's party garnered 25.70 percent of the votes, once again placing second to the Democratic Union of Kosovo (45.65 percent). Following the elections, the newly formed parliament was to elect the President of Kosovo. However, Rugova, who was a candidate for the position, could not secure the necessary simple majority of votes because he failed to reach an agreement with Thaci, who aspired to become Prime Minister. Only at the end of February 2002, Rugova reached an agreement with Thaci, who withdrew his own claims to the position of Prime Minister but secured the post for a member of his party. As a result, Rugova was elected President of Kosovo on March 4, 2002, and the position of Prime Minister was given to Bajram Rexhepi, a member of the Democratic Party of Kosovo.

In the summer of 2003, Thaci was detained at Budapest Airport based on an international arrest warrant issued in Belgrade, where he had been sentenced to 10 years in absentia. However, he was released on the same day and flew to Paris.

In October 2004, during the parliamentary elections in the region, Thaci's party once again placed second, receiving support from 28.65 percent of the voters. The DSK, with 45.32 percent, was again the winner. A parliamentary coalition was formed without the participation of Thaci's party, and in December 2004, Rugova was successfully re-elected as the President of the autonomous region.

In May 2005, Thaci announced that the Democratic Party of Kosovo had formed a "shadow" government. According to him, the alternative government's program was based on the assumption that Kosovo would become an independent state.

In early January 2006, experts considered Thaci as the main political opponent of Rugova, the first President of Kosovo. However, after Rugova's death from lung cancer at the end of January 2006, experts saw Thaci as one of the most likely candidates to succeed him as the head of the region. However, the Democratic Party of Kosovo chose not to nominate Thaci, and Fatmir Sejdiu, the Secretary-General of the Democratic Union of Kosovo, was elected as the new President.

In the parliamentary elections in Kosovo held in November 2007, Thaci's opposition party emerged victorious. The Democratic Party of Kosovo received 34.3 percent of the votes, while the previous winner, the DSK, only obtained 22.6 percent and placed second. In December 2007, Thaci began negotiations to form a ruling coalition. On January 7, 2008, the DPK and DSK signed a coalition agreement, agreeing on the redistribution of positions. The DPK received the positions of Speaker of the Parliament, Prime Minister, and seven ministries. The DSK obtained five ministerial portfolios, and the party retained the position of the country's president. Three ministries were to be led by representatives of national minorities. On January 9, 2008, the deputies of the Kosovo parliament elected Thaci as the Prime Minister, and Sejdiu was reelected as the President.

Immediately after winning the parliamentary elections in 2007, Thaci announced that he would work towards declaring Kosovo's independence unilaterally. On February 17, 2008, the deputies of the Kosovo parliament proclaimed the independence of the former autonomous province from Serbia. Serbia strongly opposed Kosovo's independence, which was recognized by several countries. The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs even filed criminal cases against Thaci, Sejdiu, and the Speaker, Krasniqi.

Thaci is married, and his wife and children live in Switzerland. He is fluent in English and German.