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Wesley Clark's former political advisor, Michael Durkee, is continuing to testify at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, in the trial of former Kosovo Liberation Army leaders Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selim and Jakup Krasniqi.
Michael Durkee said this Thursday that Hashim Thaçi did not have the authority and competence to stop the violence that took place in the summer of 1999.
"Hashim Thaçi had no competence, no authority to do this at that time," Durkee said.
He said he based this on the fact that, when the KLA took over demilitarization, efforts were being made to achieve it. But, according to him, this made him realize that it was all based on local levels and there was no command structure that Thaçi could use to stop the violence.
"There was absolutely no command structure that he could use to stop the violence," Durkee said.
The impression of NATO leaders, according to Durkee, was that there was no consolidated command structure in Kosovo that could issue orders not to carry out certain actions on the ground.
"We had this impression that there was no solid or consolidated command structure for someone to be at a high level in Pristina and give orders that would then lead to actions or certain operations on the ground in the operational areas. The operational area commanders had considerable autonomy and there was a willingness to act on their own when they saw fit," Durkee said.
According to him, in Kosovo, the Uçk did not have a structure as is usual in Western armies.
"That is, there was no consolidated chain of command in the sense of direct command coordination as it is in the Western military ," Durkee stated.
Durkee claimed that Hashim Thaçi was one of the people who said that a multiethnic Kosovo should be created. He claimed that Thaçi made a speech in 1999 calling for an end to violence.
After Michael Durkee, next Tuesday in The Hague at the Specialist Chambers, Wesley Clark, the General at the time during the war in Kosovo who led the bombing campaign in Serbia, will testify.
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