The worries of Hashim Thaci and his subordinates are not Kosovo’s worries. Prishtina needs to coordinate with NATO, the US, and the EU regarding the establishment of Kosovo’s army.
Look where irresponsible politicians like Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli lead us. Their steps to form Kosovo’s army for their private and pre-electoral interests caused a string of reactions. Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, said that steps taken by Thaci and Veseli were unilateral and unhelpful.
“In recent years, NATO has supported the development of the KSF as a professional, increasingly multi-ethnic force… The structure, mandate and mission of the KSF are a matter for local Kosovo institutions in accordance with their constitutional law. However, should the mandate of the KSF now evolve in the way proposed, NATO will have to review its level of commitment, particularly in terms of capacity-building,” Stoltenberg declared. The reaction of the US embassy in Prishtina was similar.
The immediate slap that Thaci and Veseli received from Kosovo’s essential partners goes to show that their initiative was dilettantish, irresponsible, reckless, and absurd. This is the situation that irresponsible Kosovo politicians bring us to: NATO, which bombed Serbia to liberate Kosovo, opposes this endeavor to create Kosovo’s army, and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic pretends that he could barely hold in his tears when NATO said that the North Atlantic Alliance does not support Thaci’s and Veseli’s initiative.
While Veseli was busy all day presenting his newest video clip for March 8, Thaci appeared in front of the media in the evening to play the role of the “strong guy” that does not listen to what NATO and and the US have to say. In a grumpy mood, disoriented, and insecure while reading, Thaci promised that there was no turning back, and that Kosovo will have an army.
Not one of the almost two million citizens of Kosovo denies that it is necessary for Kosovo to have its own army, but the same two million people have the right to doubt the motives of Thaci and his followers. Thaci’s worries, and those of his subordinates, are not the worries of Kosovo. Thus, Kosovo should coordinate with NATO, the U.S. and the EU regarding the establishment of Kosovo’s army. Because Kosovo is much more important than Thaci’s mood.
If Thaci is causing this this whole hurry-scurry because he might have found out that he could be indicted by the Specialist Chambers, then he should follow the example of Ramush Haradinaj and not involve the destiny of two million citizens in his stained political career. The same goes for the Assembly Speaker, who sounds like an adolescent who wants to be an absolute ruler of Kosovo. The behavior of this irresponsible political duo in the past few days shows that when it comes to being in power, they respect no rules.
What they have done to LDK these days is nothing less than a public violation in front of a population that’s merely an audience. Once more it became clear that whoever joins a coalition with this structure of PDK will pay an expensive price: the loss of any credibility in front of their voters. This is the situation in which Isa Mustafa’s LDK finds itself.
What does this party have left? To accept that its coalition partner is throwing it in the bin as unnecessary? To submit to the electoral process with the image of a crutch-party to Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli? Or should it try to rebuild bridges towards other opposition parties to create a common front to remove Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli from power and fight against the party’s parapolitics?
For this to be possible, Levizja Vetevendosje needs to become a serious partner with LDK. Vetevendosje has no problem making a coalition with some Kremlin and Dedinje emissary from the Milosevic era (as with the case of Behgjet Pacolli), yet at the same time rushes to equate LDK with Kosovo’s sworn enemies. 2017 might not be the end, but the beginning of the end of this PDK structure’s governance. Kosovo will pay a great deal for whatever power vacuum there might be. As a consequence, those who want a functional state should overcome their bloated egos. Thaci and Veseli have their own problems right now. Their worries are not the worries of Kosovo citizens.