Duncan on the KLA: We called it the army of those who have nothing, Thaçi might not be able to convince them

John Duncan, the third defense witness in the case against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selim, stated on Monday in The Hague that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was called "the army of those who had nothing."

"We called it the army of the have-nots. That's the term I used at the time and when I went into the field, I saw people who had normal lives, they were civilians, doctors, lawyers, different people who had quit their jobs and taken up arms. Their aspirations were not the same and when you negotiate with these people you have to understand what their goal is, how they got to this point. What factors pushed them to get to where they are? What are their interests and you have to know these parts to convince people to do different things," Duncan said. 

He said that the members of this army came from different strata of society, reports "Oath for Justice".

"The motive was not the same. They came from different walks of life," Duncan said.
He added that another major problem was that the KLA leadership, as personified by Hashim Thaçi, might not be able to convince the KLA soldiers about the Demilitarization Agreement.

"Another big problem was that the leadership (I'm choosing my words carefully here) as personified by Hashim Thaçi, might not be able to convince the KLA soldiers, who we were not convinced that such a thing would happen. If we had been convinced that this would happen, we would have gone to the KLA political leadership and told them that we need a disarmament agreement and negotiate it," he said.

In addition, the witness said they did not believe that Thaçi would be able to convince the soldiers.

also Arberi 9 months ago Duncan on the KLA: We called it the army of those who have nothing, Thaçi might not be able to convince them

"We did not have confidence that Mr. Thaçi would be able to convince the military or the soldiers," he said.

Duncan said that Thaçi's position did not represent reality and was not politically sustainable.

"It was not realistic to recognize Mr. Thaçi as the political leader of Kosovo. There were political forces that existed there like the LDK, Mr. Rugova and others. They could have chosen him as the leader of the Rambouillet delegation, but he was not what was called political legitimacy in a democratic society. He was not elected by the people. He had declared an Interim Government but we had reached the point where we and NATO recognized him as the prime minister of Kosovo. It was not realistic and it did not represent reality and it was not politically sustainable," he said.