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By:
Ardit Kika
- November 17, 2025 19:03
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NATO general during the Kosovo war, Wesley Clark, has begun his testimony at the Specialist Chambers. Responding to questions from Hashim Thaçi's defense, Clark said that the KLA was made up of local self-organized groups. He also spoke about his conversations with Slobodan Milošević.
Former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Wesley Clark, stated on Monday before the Specialist Chambers in The Hague that the Kosovo Liberation Army was a self-organized force.
In his testimony in the case where Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Clark emphasized that the KLA in 1998 consisted of local armed groups of Albanians, whose creation was prompted by increasing Serbian repression.
"There wasn't much information, there wasn't much to talk about as far as the (KLA) command was concerned in the summer and fall of '98. As far as we knew, these were local groups that had formed more or less spontaneously in response to Serbian oppression over many, many years. Especially after the murder of the Jashari family, there was a growing sense of alarm that more negative developments were coming, and that's why people were increasingly forming these local groups," Clark said.
General Clark also said that special forces were deployed to observe the KLA from Albanian territory, but they were unable to provide reliable information.
"I certainly got more information about the KLA from the Serbs than I did from our forces. The Serbs had points identified on the map that they identified as so-called 'terrorist points', meaning they were trying to gather information about it. Of course, the majority of the people in these groups were people who had their own homes and families and were trying to have their own lives, but on the other hand they were also trying to protect themselves and their families," Clark stated.
In this case, the prosecution claims that the accused had effective control over the KLA, while the defense claims the opposite - that the zone and local commanders had real control of the situation on the ground.
When Clark was asked about his meetings with Thaçi, he said that he seemed like a person of authority when he saw him in Rambouillet. However, he stated that Thaçi was not a military commander.
"I met with Mr. Thaçi for the second time before the bombing campaign started, if I'm not mistaken. He was one of the people there, he was the most authoritative person, he was the youngest, he was the most convincing. So, he was the person who was dressed better, he had his hair in the most appropriate way. He lived in Switzerland, he spoke German, he didn't speak much English at that time. I didn't speak much German, so it was a little difficult for us to communicate with each other, but he was not a military commander," said General Clark.
He said he based this on conversations with Thaçi, as, according to him, he was unable to suggest targets of Serbian forces for NATO to bomb.
"We wanted to not attack civilian targets, but simply intervene with the military forces on the ground. And the question I asked him is where are they and where are you. So what should I attack, what are my targets? Meanwhile, the answer I got from him was nothing," Clark said.
The general also mentioned conversations with Slobodan Milosevic. In one of them, Clark is stated that Milosevic told him that he would do what Serbia had done in the past – kill all Albanians.
"He told me we know how to deal with these Albanians, these murderers. We've done this before, it's not the first time. I asked him, 'How did you deal with them? What did you do?' He replied, 'We killed them all,'" Clark said.
Witness Wesley Clark also said that he had never heard of the KLA General Staff. Asked by the prosecution about several incidents that are part of the indictment, Clark replied that he had never heard of them.
The former Supreme Commander of NATO Allied Forces Europe, during his testimony, also spoke about a conversation with the then president of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, who, after the massacre of the Jashari family in March 98, called him on the phone and told him that "from now on, Albanians in Kosovo will rise up in armed resistance."
Wesley Clark's testimony is expected to continue in the coming days.
Former President Hashim Thaçi, former Speakers of Parliament Kadri Veseli and Jakup Krasniqi, and former Chief of the Vetëvendosje MPs, Rexhep Selimi, are accused of joint criminal enterprise in connection with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Based on the indictment of the ZPS published in February 2023, Thaçi, Veseli, Krasniqi and Selimi are accused of joint criminal enterprise in connection with about 100 murders, then for torture and cruel treatment in about 40 detention centers during the period 1998-1999.
The SPO alleges that it committed joint criminal enterprises related to six counts of war crimes, including: Persecution (Count 1), imprisonment (Count 2), other inhumane acts (Count 4), torture (Count 6), unlawful killing (Count 8), enforced disappearance (Count 10) as well as four counts of crimes against humanity, including unlawful or arbitrary arrest and detention (Count 3), cruel treatment (Count 5), torture (Count 7) and unlawful killing (Count 9).
Most of the victims of the crimes, according to the ZPS, are Albanians, civilians and members of the Democratic League of Kosovo. According to the ZPS, the accused were aware or should have been aware due to their leading positions in the General Staff, regarding the allegations of the crimes that were committed and that they intended to seize power in Kosovo through them.
Former leaders of the KLA General Staff have denied all these accusations. They have said that the KLA did not have such a hierarchy, since the area commanders had the weight and that their goal was to fight Serbia, not civilians.
