Thaçi, Hashim [key], 1968–, Kosovar political leader. An ethnic Albanian, he studied history and politics at Priština Univ., becoming active in Kosovo's independence movement. He joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1993 and soon moved to Switzerland. He was involved in guerilla attacks (1996–97) on Serbian leaders, and following a brutal Serbian crackdown he became the KLA's political leader in 1999. After Kosovo was placed under a NATO peacekeeping force, the KLA was dissolved and Thaçi established the Democratic party of Kosovo (PDK), becoming its president in 2000. In Nov., 2007, the PDK won a parliamentary majority; Thaçi became prime minister in Jan., 2008. A month later Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia. He remained prime minister after the 2010–11 elections, but was succeeded by Isa Mustafa when the PDK was forced into a coalition after the 2014 elections. Thaçi was elected president of Kosovo in 2016. In 2020 he was charged with war crimes during the Kosovo war by Hague prosecutors; later that year he resigned as president in advance of his trial.
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