In his two-day testimony at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Paul Williams, who was adviser to the Kosovo delegation during the failed Rambouillet peace talks in 1999, gave testimony that backed up defence claims that former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci could not have directly ordered war crimes.

Williams told the court on Thursday that the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, had “a rural-based structure” and that Thaci did not have authority to make decisions without the approval of the guerrilla forces’ operational zone commanders, among others.

Williams, the second witness in Thaci’s defence against war crimes and crimes against humanity charges, also confirmed the defence’s claims that the KLA did not have a proper army command structure but was a grassroots movement with decision-making from the ground up.

Similar claims were made by the first defence witness in the trial, former assistant US Secretary of State James Rubin, who testified from Monday to Wednesday,

Thaci and his co-defendants Kadri Veseli and Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi are on trial for allegedly having individual and command responsibility for crimes committed against prisoners held at KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and in neighbouring Albania, including 102 murders. The crimes were allegedly committed during and just after the war in 1998 and 1999. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Williams explained that Thaci became the leader of the Kosovo delegation to the Rambouillet talks talks between Kosovo and Serbia in France in March 1999. According to Williams, the other key member, Koosvo President Ibrahim Rugova, also “was very important, his ideas were pacifist, but he was not a negotiator. He did not negotiate.”

According to Williams, it was vital that Thaci as a representative of the KLA could show that he was “a negotiator, a diplomat who could be a reliable person or partner”.

Williams told the court that, nonetheless, Thaci did not have decision-making authority during the failed  Rambouillet, but needed confirmation from KLA operational zone commanders.

Thaci was simultaneously under pressure from US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to sign an agreement and from the KLA General Political Representative, Adem Demaci, and from zone commanders to demand independence for Kosovo in the agreement, Williams said.

Williams emphasised on Thursday that “it became crystal clear that the [KLA] zone commanders needed to be part of the process”.

Williams also told the court on Wednesday that he “didn’t get the impression that he [Thaci] had complete control over the negotiations. I think he represented outside interests, and these interests had control over his authority or behaviour during the negotiations.

“While the Kosovo delegation was in Rambouillet and progress was being made, there was external pressure from local commanders, but there was also ideological and cultural pressure from Adem Demaci [the KLA’s political director], who was hindering the progress of these negotiations and was undermining the movement towards the realization of this agreement. Therefore, this aspect had to be addressed,” Williams said.

He said Demaci was insisting on Kosovo’s independence, rather than autonomy within a Serbia-led Yugoslavia, and that Thaci had to travel to meet Demaci in Slovenia to discuss the issue.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers are part of Kosovo’s justice system but are based in The Hague with an international staff to ensure fair proceedings, following witness intimidation problems in previous KLA-related cases.

Many ethnic Albanians and KLA supporters insist that the proceedings have been unfair to the defendants. The start of the defence’s case on Monday, was preceded by a rally in The Hague staged by hundreds of ethnic Albanians and KLA veterans from across Europe and the US in support of Thaci and his three co-accused, former parliamentary speakers Veseli and Krasniqi, and former MP Selimi.

The court has told BIRN that Thaci will call 11 witnesses, while former speaker Krasniqi will call two. The judging panel has set November 14 as an estimated closing date for the defence case. Thaci’s third witness will testify next week.