Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has defended Switzerland’s official recognition of Kosovo despite recent accusations against its current prime minister.
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“Hashim Thaci has only been the head of government since January 2008. The declaration of independence and its recognition by many states does not depend on him,” she said in an interview published on Wednesday in the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper.
She added Switzerland had not been the first country to recognise the independence of the former Serb province. “Austria did it before us, if that is any reassurance,” she noted.
Last week Swiss media widely questioned the wisdom of recognising Kosovo.
It follows the publication on Thursday of a Council of Europe report accusing the Kosovo leader of heading a mafia-style organisation during the Kosovo Albanian guerrilla war against Serbia in the late 1990s – a ring that assassinated opponents and trafficked in drugs as well as organs harvested from murdered Serbs.
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Media question wisdom of recognising Kosovo
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There have been criticisms in the Swiss media this week of Switzerland’s diplomatic move, following a Council of Europe report accusing the Kosovo leader of heading a mafia-style organisation. The international community also came in for criticism by Swiss politician Dick Marty, who led the investigation. According to Marty, the European Union, the United States…
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Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty, a Swiss senator who led the two-year effort to uncover alleged crimes committed by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, also accused officials of turning a blind eye to the atrocities. At a media conference in Paris on Thursday, Marty said he had assembled facts and reports. As to physical…
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In an exclusive interview with swissinfo.ch, the Swiss lawyer said she was torn between concern and satisfaction at the idea that these “heinous acts” would soon be brought to justice. Del Ponte, now Switzerland’s ambassador to Argentina and due to retire early next year, was Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia…
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On February 17, 2008, the former Serbian province of Kosovo declared its independence. The Swiss government was one of the first to recognise Kosovo as an independent state. Ethnic Albanians make up 92 per cent of the population of 2.2 million, but Serbs still dominate the north of the country.
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