Kosovo’s president will go to Hague court, if summoned

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s president says he will respond positively if summoned by a European Union-funded court investigating crimes against ethnic Serbs during and after the 1998-99 independence war with Serbia.

Hashim Thaci on Monday said that “if there is any invitation at any moment I will respond with full transparency,” and urged others to do the same.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was set up four years after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human rights body, which catalogued allegations of widespread crimes committed by ethnic Albanian members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Last week the court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, started questioning some former Kosovo fighters.

Kosovo’s 1998-99 war ended with a 78-day NATO air campaign. Its 2008 independence has not been recognized by Serbia.