The trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci , who is accused of committing war crimes and against humanity against Serbian forces during the 1998-1999 war of independence, begins before a special court in The Hague.

Taji, 54, a former Kosovo Liberation Army veteran, pleaded not guilty in November 2020 during his first appearance before the Special Tribunal for Kosovo.

Taji was elected president of Kosovo in 2016, but resigned after this court indicted him, along with three other suspects being tried alongside him.

The four men are suspected of committing nearly 100 murders, enforced disappearances and torture between March 1998 and September 1999.

Hugh Williamson, Human Rights Watch's director for Europe and Central Asia, said the trial "provides an opportunity, after many years, for the victims to find out what happened."

He added that the trial "shows the generalized impunity that still prevails in the Kosovo conflict."

Taji, who has been at the center of Kosovo politics for two decades, has long pleaded not guilty, accusing international justice of "rewriting history". But he promised to "closely cooperate with the judiciary."

The Kosovo war between Serb forces and armed Albanian separatists resulted in 13,000 deaths, most of them from the region's Albanians. It ended when a campaign of air strikes by Western countries in the spring of 1999 forced Serbian forces to withdraw.

At the end of the war, Hashem Taji abandoned the armed struggle to enter politics, which prompted Joe Biden, who was then Vice President of the United States, to see him as "George Washington of Kosovo."

The trial will start at 9:00 local time (7:00 GMT) with preliminary arguments for the prosecution and the victims' lawyers. The defense attorneys will take the floor on Tuesday.

Thousands of people demonstrated Sunday in Pristina in support of the former president and former rebels.

The three suspects, along with Taji, were transferred to The Hague, and they are the former spokesman for the Kosovo Liberation Army, Jacob Krasniqi, one of Taji's senior political allies, Kadri Veseli, a former intelligence official in this army, as well as one of its prominent figures, Recep Salimi.

The Special Tribunal for Kosovo is a Kosovo judicial body composed of international judges and charged with investigating crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army during and after the war, especially targeting Serbs, Roma and opponents in Kosovo of the Liberation Army.

The majority of the population of Kosovo, which declared its independence in 2008 and was not recognized by Serbia, believes that the conflict was a "just war" against Belgrade's forces.

The appearance of Taji for the first time was reported in the newspapers in Kosovo and broadcast live on television stations.

In December, the Special Tribunal for Kosovo issued its first verdict on war crimes charges and sentenced one of the separatist leaders, Salih Mustafa, who had overseen a torture center, to 26 years in prison.

Peter Schala, a former commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army, is also on trial for war crimes.

In 2021, the court issued prison sentences against two men after convicting them of intimidating witnesses