Hashim Thaci
by James Norton

There’s a handsome new rebel on the world scene, and he’s Hashim Thaci, a leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army and the self-proclaimed Prime Minister of Kosovo. Thaci, whose leadership and military credentials are unquestionable, suffers from one tiny public relations blemish:

It is alleged by some Western diplomats and many within his own ranks that Thaci is responsible for ordering the brutal killings of as many as a half dozen members of the KLA in an effort to consolidate power and silence his critics.

The KLA, of course, is working together with NATO to help administrate and pacify the Kosovo region, making it an unofficial partner in the post-war cleanup process, if anything in the Balkans can be safely considered "post-war."

This, of course, raises some ugly questions about double standards, questions that have been inconveniently cropping up throughout the course of the war.

If Serbs are to be indicted and punished for war crimes, what about the Croatians, for their crimes against the Serbs? Or the Albanians, for their crimes against the Gypsies? And is there anything wrong with sharing control of Kosovo with a man like Hashim Thaci? Should we even care about what the Kosovo Liberation Army may or may not have done in its quest to free its homeland?

America’s brand of empire has been touted as superior to conventional, surface-area accumulating empires of old. Unlike the Romans, or the British, we don’t have to worry about building roads and schools in the countries that we draw our wealth from. Unlike the Spanish and French, we don’t have to worry about bitter populist movements rising up, costing us enormous amounts of money and blood. And justice? Forget it. We’ll leave law enforcement, morality and justice up to the local strongman, who, likely as not, has an authoritarian answer to almost any dilemma that might evolve.

But now, in Yugoslavia (of all places) America is being confronted with hard choices about justice. What does justice entail? How should it be enforced? If it’s not our problem, whose problem is it? Why aren’t the Europeans doing their share? Why should we expect them to?

However, regardless of Thaci’s (possible) crimes, it is unlikely that the U.S. government will feel too much pressure to act.

For one thing, the KLA are the good guys. They helped our planes spot Serbs. They’ve been ethnically cleansed. Additionaly, Americans still tend to identify with rebels rising up against oppressive conditions, unless they happen to be Fidel Castro or Ho Chi Min.

For another thing, Hashim Thaci is handsome. While he doesn’t have a media-accessible name, his nom de guerre, "Snake" has a pleasant ring to it. And Americans have been raised by Disney to like pretty people.

Even when you look at "Beauty and the Beast", which should be a shining counterexample, it doesn’t take long to figure out that the Beast is pretty cute. He’s a fluffy, blustering stuffed animal that every sixth grade girl would like to take home and snuggle with. Compare that to Slobodan Milosevic.

The good.	The bad.	And, of course, the ugly.

One thing’s for certain, and this mess only highlights it: America and its allies need to figure out what global justice means. Is it a toothless international organization that condemns every injustice, and acts only by consensus? Is it the flaming and arbitrary sword of the American military, complete with Apache helicopters that don’t fly and the world’s most expensive airplane?

Or should the world work out a new way of dispensing justice to deal with men like Mr. Hashim Thaci?

E-mail James Norton at jrnorton@flakmag.com.