Former US Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin, the first witness for Hashim Thaçi's defense, testified for several hours in The Hague about his acquaintance, meetings and communications with Thaçi and other members of the KLA.

He described Thaçi's role in the KLA as political, emphasizing that he did not have full authority over its commanders.

Rubin also confessed that Thaçi initially refused to sign the Rambouillet Agreement, fearing that he would be considered the man who had given up on Kosovo's independence.

Former US Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin also stated that Albanians were killed by Serbs solely because of their ethnicity. He said that the aim of US policy at the time was to prevent a recurrence of the Bosnian crisis. He said this during his testimony at the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, as he stressed that “we wanted to be on the side of the victims”.

Kadri Veseli's lawyer, Rodney Dixon, questioned witness James Rubin regarding international intervention in Kosovo.

"We were very concerned by the reports we received, families being killed, their homes being burned, and being killed simply because they were Kosovo Albanians."

"This began to resemble the Bosnian crisis, where people were killed and massacred simply because of their ethnicity and not for something they had done, and we began to see the same policy emerging, the same thing, and this made us act, they were victims, not only had they been oppressed for decades, but they were being massacred by Serbian military forces, and we did not want the horror of Bosnia to be repeated in Kosovo, that was the goal of our policy – ​​to prevent the same thing from happening again," he said.

During his testimony before the jury, Rubin said that their goal was to protect innocent civilians.

"After Bosnia where we thought we stopped a war and helped create a tolerant society, not a chaotic one, we were proud of what we did, and we saw a new situation in Kosovo, and we wanted to make sure we were on the side of the angels, we say, on the side of the good, we didn't want them to be victims. But they couldn't be victims if they committed war crimes, nor would they be victims if they had an extremist Islamist approach.

At this time America was a superpower, we wanted to be on the side of the victims…We didn’t want to conduct military operations or spend billions of dollars on people or organizations that didn’t express tolerance, at least publicly. These are people without power, these were victims, we met with them, while they were victims of an oppressor. These were people who were on the opposite side of power in Kosovo, and we wanted to make sure that they were free and did not follow the policies of the oppressor,” he added during his testimony in The Hague.

James Rubin was previously interviewed by Thaçi's lawyer, Luka Misetic. His testimony began this morning and is the first for the defense.

During Misetic's questioning, Rubin was asked if he remembered that former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had told Thaçi that he would be held criminally responsible for crimes that might be committed in Kosovo after the entry of KFOR.

"Do you remember that later that day she met with Mr. Thaçi?"

Rubin: Po.

Misetic: You were present at the meetings with Mr. Thaçi.

Rubin: Absolutely yes.

Misetic: Do you remember during this trip that the Secretary of State told Hashim Thaçi that he would be held criminally responsible for crimes that would be committed in Kosovo after the entry of KFOR?

Rubin: Absolutely not.

Misetic: Did she tell him that he would investigate and prosecute the crimes that were being committed.

Rubin: I don't remember, I can tell you if I remember, she might have wanted to give him this message, she might have wanted to say that there will be tolerance, please remember to be tolerant and not in the way you said.

In his testimony, Rubin said that Albright, in that meeting, had asked Thaçi to show tolerance and for the people to be tolerant.

James Rubin's testimony is in defense of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi. He is accompanied in the courtroom by two representatives of the United States of America. He told the jury that during the period 1997-2000 he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and as the chief spokesperson who reported directly to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

During his engagement for the Rambouillet conference, Rubin said he met several times with Thaçi, who he said was "concerned that he would not have the authority or full permission to sign the Rambouillet agreement." (KosovaPress)