Mr. Thaci goes to Los Angeles
THE EUROPEAN FOUNDATION, 11th - 24th August 2000
Intelligence Digest Issue No. 101

On a recent tour of the United States, Kosovo's paramilitary leader, the head of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Hashim Thaci, has held meetings at the State Department and attended the Democratic Party convention in Los Angeles. [RFE Newsline, 22nd August 2000] His presence at the Democratic Party convention was particularly apposite, since the Vice-Presidential candidate, Joseph Liberman, has always been a vocal supporter of the KLA. Last year, Senator Lieberman said, -"The United States of America and the Kosovo Liberation Army stand for the same human values and principles....Fighting for the KLA is fighting for human rights and American values." [Washington Post, 28th April, 1999]

Thaci's high profile visit to the United States has raised eyebrows, since it comes at a time of increasing internecine violence between Albanians, in which members of the League for a Democratic Kosovo, the main political rival to the KLA in the forthcoming elections, have been attacked and, in one case, murdered.

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