Tony Blair was advised to work with militants in Kosovo, some of whom have subsequently been put on trial for war crimes, despite reportedly believing they were “not much better than the Serbs” whose own crimes against humanity he was seeking to end, it has been revealed. Blair, then the UK prime minister, had grave concerns about being seen to be too close to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which was fighting against the Serbian nationalist forces led by Slobodan Milošević. But he was advised: “Overall, our starting point in a conflict like this should be that your enemy’s enemy is your friend.” In a paper prepared by John Sawers, then Blair’s foreign affairs adviser and later the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, the former prime minister was told: “We’re in danger of being too sniffy. We do not want to favour the KLA politically over other Kosovar parties. “But we have to reckon on the KLA becoming vastly more popular after what has happened [in the Yugoslav wars], and recognise that they are the only party with an army of sorts.”
In the paper, sent to Blair and his senior aides, Sawers suggested it would be impossible to disarm the KLA after the conflict. Instead, he advised, it would be better to work with the organisation to bring about elections. At the bottom of the paper, released to the National Archives by the Cabinet Office on Friday, an unsigned hand has written: “I agree.” The note makes clear the angst within No 10 about the nature and extent of the UK’s involvement in the brutal multi-factional conflict that raged in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. Nato interventions included airstrikes against the forces of Milošević, who died in 2006 while being tried for war crimes. The UK, under Blair’s leadership, would subsequently become one of the principal backers of the KLA under its then leader Hashim Thaçi. In April this year, the latter appeared in the dock of a court in The Hague – alongside three prominent colleagues – accused of war crimes that include alleged complicity in the murders of 102 people. A spokesman for Blair declined to comment.