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Kosovar PM's dad: 'Who knew this house would make a leader' By Assaf Uni Tags: Kosovo DRENICA VALLEY, Kosovo - A winding dirt road leads to the Thaci family home, on the hills overlooking the Drenica Valley, the stronghold of Albanian nationalism in Kosovo and the focus of the violent struggle in the 1990s against the Serbian regime. The pale, modestly renovated house is set into the hillside on the outskirts of the village of Buroja. In June 1999, a few days after NATO began bombing Serbian targets to protect the Albanian population, Serbian forces burned the house nearly down to the ground. The Thacis fled, finding shelter in various nearby villages. Today, 30 members of the family live here. One day soon, the fourth-oldest son will declare Kosovo's independence. Hashim Thaci's father sits in the family's rug-draped parlor and recalls the fighting days of his son, the guerrilla fighter who became the prime minister of Kosovo. Haji Thaci, 70, is a chain smoker who wears the white cap typical of the Albanian majority in Kosovo. "We saw him a few times during the war," Haji recalled. "Hashim would come in the middle of the night, only during stormy weather - the rain or snow helped shield him. Sometimes, when he took his shoes off you could see that his socks had stuck to his flesh from so much walking." Haji says the Serbs knew the house was Hashim's "and harassed us." Advertisement Did he ever think this house would produce the leader of independent Kosovo? "We knew the house would make a fighter," Hashim's brother Agim says, interrupting. "But we never thought it would make a leader," their father adds. That unexpected leap, from the tradition of warfare in villages that did not respect the rule of law, to international politics, may best illustrate the path of Kosovo's people to independent rule. From the perspective of the international community, the Kosovo Liberation Army began as a terror organization. In February 1998, a senior U.S. diplomat unequivocally called the armed group, that was established in the Drenica Valley as the antithesis to the policy of nonviolence championed by the Kosovan leader Ibrahim Rugova, a terrorist organization. The KLA targeted Serb forces. According to many commentators, the strategy driving its actions was to provoke a disproportionate response from Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic to attract NATO intervention. In retrospect, this strategy proved itself. Thaci studied political science at the University of Prishtina and was a student leader in 1989-91, organizing demonstrations against the Belgrade government and secretly training militants in the Drenica Valley. In 1995, he moved to Switzerland, where he studied international relations in the University of Zurich and raised money from Kosovan guest workers and others for the militant groups. When he returned to Kosovo, he adopted the nom de guerre "Gjarperi" (the snake) and got involved in operations against the Serb forces. Thaci soon became head of the KLA's political branch. His first international recognition came at the 1999 Rambouillet talks on the crisis in Kosovo, when he led the Kosovo Albanian delegation. Thaci initially opposed the agreement being offered, under heavy pressure from KLA commanders, as it did not grant full independence to Kosovo. After a brief visit to Kosovo, however, he returned and signed the agreement, thus guaranteeing the isolation of the Serbs, who refused to approve it. The Serbian rejection set off the NATO bombing campaign in Kosovo. The KLA, the saying goes, became "a guerrilla organization with an air force." It also set off a massive "cleansing" and killing campaign by Serbian forces against Kosovo Albanians. One million people were driven from their homes and hundreds of people were killed. After the 78-day NATO bombardment and the withdrawal of the Serb forces, KLA members killed many Serbs and collaborators. Some KLA leaders are currently being tried by the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal. Thaci was responsible for disarming the KLA, and he founded the Democratic Party of Kosovo. In last November's elections, the PDK won 35 percent of the votes and he became prime minister. Thaci has a strong connection to Israel. The former Bank of Israel governor David Klein is one of his financial advisers and he has an Israeli political adviser on staff. Thaci visited Israel only a year ago, when he was still an opposition leader, and met with businessmen and Foreign Ministry officials. At his home in Buroja, Haji Thaci says he is very proud that his son is about to declare Kosovo's independence. "Even when I was a boy we thought about independence, but we never had the ability to achieve it." How does he explain the fact that his son, once called "the snake," is now sometimes called "Hashim Rugova," for his moderate policies? "In war he was a snake, and in peace he is moderate," brother Agim interjects. "He's neither one nor the other," father Haji says. "He is Hashim Thaci." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Baghdad, Interrupted Movie star Angelina Jolie takes on Iraq as UN goodwill ambassador. Unwanted praise Hezbollah leader Nasrallah compliments on the Winograd Committee report.

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