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A28 WORLD NEWS
Monday 13 July 2020

Kosovo president Hashim Thaci speaks during a televised
address to the nation, in Pristina, Kosovo, Monday, June 29, 2020.
Associated Press
Kosovo's Thaci strongly

denies committing

any war crimes

Gypsy Cordova blows smoke and shakes a maraca in front of a Juan Ponce de Leon monument
By LLAZAR SEMINI international staff working while leading a group of activists in a march demanding statues and street names commemorating
Associated Press under Kosovo's law, is man- symbols of colonial oppression be removed, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Saturday, July 11, 2020.
Associated Press
TIRANA, Albania (AP) — dated to look into allega-
Kosovo's president said tions that members of the Puerto Rico questions Spain's
Sunday he was going to Kosovo Liberation Army,
The Hague to prove to which was fighting for inde- legacy as statues tumble in U.S.
prosecutors investigating pendence, committed war
war crimes allegedly com- crimes and crimes against
mitted during and after a humanity. By DÁNICA COTO group of the Arawak Indi- "No, it won't be easy,"
1998-1999 armed conflict Thaci, a KLA commander, Associated Press ans. Historians and anthro- acknowledged activist
in Kosovo between ethnic was mentioned in the in- SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) pologists believe that up to Francisco Jordán García,
Albanian separatists and dictment together with — Statues, street names, 60,000 Tainos lived in Puerto who helped organize the
Serbia that he had broken former Kosovo assembly plazas and even the body Rico at the time, but they march. "It's going to be a
no international laws dur- speaker Kadri Veseli, and of conquistador Juan were soon forced into labor long process."
ing the war. some others not mentioned Ponce de León himself: and succumbed to infec- But he quickly offered alter-
Hashim Thaci spoke to pri- by name. Both have de- Spain left a nearly indelible tious disease outbreaks. natives: "We can melt them
vate television Top Chan- nied responsibility for war legacy in Puerto Rico that Centuries later, local gov- and create a different stat-
nel at the Mother Teresa crimes. attracts hordes of tourists ernment officials honored ue of someone who truly
Tirana International Air- "It is true we violated the every year, but some activ- both explorers by erect- deserves it."
port before leaving for The laws of Slobodan Milos- ists are trying to erase it as ing statues and naming Activists recently contact-
Hague to be questioned evic's regime and for that, they join a U.S. movement streets and plazas after ed the office of San Juan
by prosecutors on Monday. I am proud as people and to eradicate symbols of op- them across Puerto Rico. Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz
The Kosovo Specialist as an individual," said Tha- pression. The Columbus Plaza is lo- and said an assistant told
Chambers and Specialist ci. "But (I have violated) no Dozens of activists marched cated at the entrance of them officials would evalu-
Prosecutor's Office, a court international law under any through the historic part Old San Juan and bears ate the cost of taking down
based in The Hague with circumstances."q of Puerto Rico's capital on a statue of Columbus un- the statues. A Cruz spokes-
Saturday, some wearing veiled in 1893 to celebrate man did not return a mes-
U.S., Chinese traditional Taino clothing the 400th anniversary of sage for comment.
as they banged on drums his arrival. Meanwhile, a The march comes as Puer-
ambassadors spar and blew on conch shells nearby statue of Ponce de to Ricans' interest in the ter-

on Twitter in Brazil to demand that the U.S. León stands facing south ritory's indigenous past con-
territory's government start with his left hand on his hip tinues to grow. In the 2010
by removing statues includ- and right finger pointed to- Census, some 42,000 of the
By DANIEL CARVALHO in Xinjiang" province. ing those of explorer Chris- ward the first settlement he 3.7 million people living on
Associated Press "Silence is not an option," topher Columbus. founded. The ruins still mark the island at that time iden-
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — The Chapman added. "These statues represent all the spot of the island's first tified themselves as at least
U.S. and Chinese ambas- On Saturday, the U.S. Em- that history of violence, of Spanish capital and is a U.S. partially Taino.
sadors have gotten into a bassy Twitter account invasion, of looting, of theft, National Historic Landmark. Statues of Columbus have
Twitter spat in Brazil, echo- quoted the FBI director ac- of murder," said an activ- The statue made of melted been removed or toppled
ing the tense relations be- cusing China of paying sci- ist who goes by the name steel from British cannons elsewhere in the U.S. main-
tween the nations as a entists at American univer- of Pluma and is a member also points in the same di- land following an uproar
whole. sities "to secretly bring our of Puerto Rico's Council for rection of the nearby San over racism after the police
It started Friday when U.S. knowledge and innovation the Defense of Indigenous Juan Bautista Cathedral killing of George Floyd. Pro-
Ambassador Todd Chap- back to China - including Rights. "These are crimes that bears Ponce de León's testers in Baltimore threw
man retweeted a State valuable research, funded against humanity." remains and is a popular a Columbus statue into a
Department account ac- by the federal govern- Columbus landed in Puerto tourist spot. harbor, while they behead-
cusing the Chinese Com- ment". Rico in 1493 accompanied Activists on Saturday de- ed another one in Bos-
munist Party of conducting It added: "Is this happen- by Spaniard Ponce de manded that both statues ton. Meanwhile, officials in
"a mass sterilization cam- ing in Brazil?" León, who later became be removed as the first step states including New York,
paign for women as part Chinese Ambassador Yang the island's first governor in taking down symbols of Ohio, California, Missouri
of its crackdown on Uighurs Wanming reacted on Twit- and quelled an uprising by oppression across Puerto and Connecticut have re-
and other ethnic minorities ter Sunday. q the native Tainos, a sub- Rico. moved similar statues.q