
NATO General Wesley Clark, in a television appearance, commented on the sentencing of former KLA leaders by the Hague Tribunal.
Clark said he was shocked by the decision and said he had seen no evidence to justify the decision.
Further, in his statement, the general said that Thaçi did an excellent job and to protect the innocent Serbian population.
"I am shocked and angry. I know Thaçi and his friends and all those who fought the war. I testified in court, I said what I saw and I knew what was happening in Kosovo and our cooperation with the KLA and I have not seen any evidence to justify this kind of decision. Unfortunately, the Court gave its decision and this will be a difficult road in the future. As far as I know, these secret testimonies that they themselves did not show me any evidence from the prosecution, would not make me change my mind. I met Hashim Thaçi three times during the conflict and in Rambouillet. Of course I met him when I was in Kosovo, but the KLA and what was happening there was a rebellion against an authoritarian regime and not only an authoritarian regime, but also many individual crimes committed by individual Serbs against their Albanian neighbors. And as I explained and in court today, there was a lot of emotion with people who had known each other and Albanians "They felt betrayed by their Serbian neighbors who had lived a life together, but certainly there were strong feelings and I thought that Hashim Thaçi did a great job of protecting the innocent Serbian population, like those who were on the Ibar River pushing the Albanians down. So I had concerns about that going forward, but I couldn't say that Thaçi was someone who could be convicted of war crimes ," Clark said.