Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Rubin declared that Albanians were being killed by Serbs only because of their ethnicity. He said that the purpose of U.S. policy at the time was to prevent a repeat of the Bosnia crisis. He made these remarks during his testimony at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, stressing that “we wanted to be on the side of the victims.”

Kadri Veseli’s lawyer, Rodney Dixon, asked the witness James Rubin about the international intervention in Kosovo.

“We were deeply concerned by the reports we were receiving — families being killed, homes being burned, and people being murdered simply because they were Kosovo Albanians. This started to resemble the Bosnia crisis, where people were killed and massacred simply because of their ethnicity, not because of anything they had done. We began to see that the same policy, the same thing, was emerging again, and that compelled us to act. They were victims, not only because they had been oppressed for decades, but because 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 purpose of our policy — to prevent the same thing from happening again,” he said.

During his testimony before the panel of judges, Rubin said that the goal had been to protect innocent civilians.

“After Bosnia, where we believed we stopped a war and helped create a tolerant society, preventing chaos, we were proud of what we had done. Then we saw the new situation in Kosovo, and we wanted to make sure we were on the side of the angels, as we say — on the side of the good guys. We did not want them to be victims. But they could not be considered victims if they committed war crimes, nor could they be considered victims if they adopted Islamist extremist approaches. At that time, America was a superpower, and we wanted to be on the side of the victims… We did not want to conduct military operations or spend billions of dollars on people or organizations that did not express tolerance, at least publicly. These were powerless people; these were victims. We met with them, and at the same time, they were the victims of an oppressor. They were people who stood against the ruling power in Kosovo, and we wanted to ensure they were free and did not adopt the policies of the oppressor,” he added during his testimony in The Hague.

Earlier, James Rubin was interviewed by Hashim Thaçi’s lawyer, Luka Misetić. His testimony began this morning and it is the first for the defense.

During Misetić’s questioning, Rubin was asked whether he remembered if former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had told Thaçi that he would bear criminal responsibility for crimes that might be committed in Kosovo after the entry of KFOR.

Misetić: Do you remember that Albright told Thaçi he would bear criminal responsibility for the crimes?

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

Rubin: Yes.

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

Rubin: Absolutely yes.

Misetić: Do you remember during this trip that the Secretary of State told Mr. Thaçi that he would bear criminal responsibility for crimes that would be committed in Kosovo after the entry of KFOR?

Rubin: Absolutely not.

Misetić: Did she tell him that he would investigate and prosecute the crimes being committed?

Rubin: I don’t recall. What I can tell you is that if I do remember, she may have wanted to deliver that message. She would have wanted to say that there must be tolerance, please bear in mind to be tolerant — but not in the form you described,” Rubin responded.

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

James Rubin’s testimony is in defense of former President of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi. In the courtroom, he was accompanied by two representatives of the United States of America. He told the judges that between 1997–2000 he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and as the chief spokesperson reporting directly to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Speaking about his involvement in the Rambouillet Conference, Rubin said that he had met Thaçi several times, and described him as “concerned that he would not have the authority or full permission to sign the Rambouillet agreement.”