PDK

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his three co-defendants went on trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers on Monday morning, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed between at least March 1998 and September 1999 in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania during and just after the war with Serbian forces.

On trial alongside Thaci will be Kadri Veseli, a former Kosovo parliamentary speaker and leader of Kosovo Democratic Party, PDK, Jakup Krasniqi, the chairman of the national council of the Social Democratic Initiative, NISMA party, and Rexhep Selimi, who was the head of the Vetevendosje party's parliamentary group of MPs at the time of his arrest.

The prosecution's presentation of evidence in the case against former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three other former senior Kosovo Liberation Army, KA guerrillas at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague could go on for six-and-a-half years, presiding judge Charles Smith III told a case status conference at the court on Monday.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague has published a less redacted version of the indictment of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who goes on trial with three other Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA ex-officers next month, giving more details of the war crimes and crimes against humanity charges against them.

Kosovo's ruling Vetevendosje party suffered a heavy blow in Sunday's mayoral election runoffs, winning only four of the 12 municipalities it was competing in, and losing in the capital.

Kosovo's election winner, Albin Kurti of the Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) Movement, has for the past two days been in the parliament building holding meetings with leaders of all political parties that won seats in the February 14 general elections, trying to form a government quickly before turning to the issue of the country's next president.

The opposition Vetevendosje party was on course for a landslide victory in snap parliamentary elections in Kosovo on Sunday, on a day that its leader and prime ministerial candidate, Albin Kurti, described as a "bright day" when he cast his ballot at a Pristina polling centre in the morning.

Kosovo's premier Ramush Haradinaj on Tuesday reinforced his message that Pristina wants negotiations on the basis of "principles of mutual recognition" with Belgrade if it is to drop its 100 per cent tariffs on Serbian goods.

A Kosovo parliamentary debate on the death of Astrit Dehari, an activist from the Vetevendosje party, was interrupted when a minister from the ruling party said the issue was being "instrumentalised" in the interest of "pro-Russian circles".

As Kosovo waits for official results from Sunday's local elections, some 17 municipalities already seem set for runoffs, according to preliminary data from local NGO Democracy in Action (DIA), which monitored the process.