PRISTINA, Kosovo -- The president of Kosovo, who served as a guerrilla leader during Kosovo's war for independence from Serbia in the late 1990s, resigned Thursday, and will face charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity at a special court based in The Hague.
President Hashim Thaci said he decided to relinquish his post "to protect the integrity of the presidency of Kosovo" and to preserve the historical truth of which side was the perpetrator, and which the victim, in the conflict that killed more than 10,000 people.
"We are a freedom-loving people and not vengeful," the 52-year-old Thaci said at a news conference in Pristina, Kosovo's capital. "That is why no claim may rewrite history. Kosovo has been the victim. Serbia has been the aggressor."
Thaci was indicted in April along with nine other former rebel leaders by a special Kosovo court and associated prosecutor's office based in The Hague, Netherlands, which were set up five years ago to investigate and try former ethnic Albanian rebel leaders for war crimes.
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The charges, which were made public in June, include murder, enforced disappearances, persecution and torture. A pretrial judge had six months to decide whether to uphold the indictment and ruled to do so, a decision that precipitated the timing of the president's resignation.
Most of the people who died in the 1998-99 war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians, and 1,641 people are still unaccounted for. A 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbian troops ended the fighting.
Among others charged with committing crimes during and after the war is Kadri Veseli, a former parliament speaker and an opposition party leader, who said he planned to travel to the The Hague on Thursday and was resigning from "all public political activities."
Thaci and Veseli have denied committing any crimes. They and another indicted former KLA fighter were taken by plane to the Netherlands later Thursday.
Thaci, a commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the war, said he was proud to have belonged to that force.
The government said in a statement that all defendants should be considered innocent unless the court decides otherwise. Details of the 10-count indictment against Thaci, Veseli and the others have not ben released.
"No one may judge our fight for freedom," the government said, adding that the Kosovo Liberation Army "fought for the liberation of our country, to protect the house and not in a foreign land, and as such it has the support of the international community."
Thaci held a ceremony at his office to hand over his presidential duties to parliament speaker Vjosa Osmani, who will serve as acting president. The government said the "constitution and the laws in power guarantee a clear transition of powers and exercising the responsibilities without any institutional vacuum."
Osmani, 38, the second woman to serve as head of state out of post-war Kosovo's six presidents, called for unity in a late afternoon speech.
"A sustainable peace in the region asks that the victims and the aggressors are not equalized," she said. "We, Kosovo's Albanians, have been the victim of the hegemony of a genocidal regime, while Serbia has been the state that committed these crimes."
Thaci was elected president in February 2016. His current term ends in April.
Information for this article was contributed by Mike Corder and Lorne Cook of The Associated Press.
