Jock Covey, who served as deputy to UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative Bernard Kouchner, testified today in The Hague as a defense witness for former President Hashim Thaçi.
Thaçi’s lawyer completed his questioning after the lunch break, while Covey will return tomorrow to the Specialist Chambers courtroom to respond to questions from the Office of the Specialist Prosecutor.
According to presiding judge Charles Smith, Covey’s testimony is expected to conclude on October 1.
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On the first day of his testimony in the major trial against Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi, the defense’s fourth witness said Thaçi had a “complicated relationship” with commanders in the field.
“There was little chance they would seek his [Thaçi’s] instructions, let alone his orders, or that they would report their activities to him,” Covey stated.
During his testimony, he described the KLA as “more of a movement than an army.”
“Each individual in the zones, or commanders on the ground, had wide autonomy—whether in reality or in their imagination—but they believed they could do as they decided within their areas, as if they were independent,” he said.
Covey also spoke of the meetings he attended as Kouchner’s deputy, noting that he had never seen Thaçi issue orders.
He added that, in the latter part of 1999, Thaçi called for avoiding violence against minorities.
“In fact, I am impressed that what Mr. Thaçi said had roots in earlier times. So we cannot claim it was our role that made him say those things; it was a process that had begun before our arrival,” Covey noted when asked about Thaçi’s appeal to prevent attacks on minorities.
He also referred to the Roma community, saying that Serbs exploited them as tools.
“You can see across Europe that there were various reasons at the local level for hostility toward Roma. However, as I recall, the Serbs were always eager to use the Roma as tools whenever they could,” the witness said.
After Thaçi’s defense concluded questioning, the other teams said they had no further questions. The presiding judge then announced that the Prosecutor’s questions would begin tomorrow.
Covey’s testimony follows that of former U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin, former legal advisor to Kosovo’s Rambouillet team, and former British diplomat John Stewart Duncan.
The presentation of defense evidence began on September 15. Thaçi’s defense has planned to call 11 witnesses in total, after which two additional witnesses called by Jakup Krasniqi’s defense are expected.
The defense presentation is expected to conclude by mid-November, while the panel has ordered the defense teams to submit their closing briefs by December 22 of this year.
Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi are charged with alleged war crimes. They have been held in detention since November 2020.
