RE: Hague court bids to rein in former Kosovo PM

 

RE: Hague court bids to rein in former Kosovo PM
31/10/2005

Your articles notes that the former Kosovo prime minister and Kosovo Liberation Army leader Ramush Haradinaj, although indicted for war crimes against Serbs, Roma and fellow Albanians, has been allowed by a preliminary judgment of The Hague Tribunal's judiciary to return to the province and resume political life while awaiting his trial.

This extraordinarily lenient treatment should come as no surprise. After all, the international community's recent decision to discuss the status of Kosovo handsomely rewards KLA ethnic cleansing. Apparently, it is asking too much of Kosovo's Albanians, having won outright, to welcome back the many Serbs, Roma and other non-Albanians whom they expelled during the early days of the NATO occupation and to stop harassing those Serbs who stayed behind. To ditch "standards before status" is to appease the province's Albanians in their non-negotiable demand for an independent and ethnically pure Kosovo.

So much for Gen Wesley Clark's comment during the bombing of Serbia that "There is no place in modern Europe for ethnically pure states." To add to the irony, there now appears to be a place in Europe for Croatia, a more or less ethnically pure state as a result of its expunging of the Krajina Serb nation.

Yugo Kovach
European Co-ordinator
The Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies (www.balkanstudies.org)
22 The Barons
Twickenham, Middx TW1 2AP
United Kingdom
020 8892 1979
01258 880 283


United Kingdom
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Hague court bids to rein in former Kosovo PM

ISN SECURITY WATCH (20/10/05) - Prosecutors at the Hague-based International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) late on Wednesday lodged an excoriating appeal to prevent Kosovo's former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj from returning to political life.

The appeal was couched in unusually strong language and noted angrily that despite being indicted for extremely serious crimes, Haradinaj was gradually “being reinstated as a key player in the political scene in Kosovoâ€Â.

Hague prosecutors said they would submit more evidence to the Appeals Chamber on Thursday or at the very latest on Friday. However, the contents of these submissions are to remain confidential as potential witnesses could be identified if they were made public.

Haradinaj, 37, is a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK/KLA). His indictment, along with that of two subordinates, was made public last March. It accused the three men of 37 counts of abduction, murder, torture, and "ethnic cleansing", committed against Serbs, Roma, and fellow Albanians in 1998.

When his indictment was made public, Haradinaj was prime minister of Kosovo and was widely acclaimed as having achieved much during the 100 days he was in office. On his departure for The Hague, Soren Jessen-Petersen, the head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), publicly lamented the fate of his “close partner and friendâ€Â.

On 6 June, Haradinaj was released from custody pending trial. The terms of his conditional release allowed him to pursue limited work within his own party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. Haradinaj’s defense team then asked for these terms to be relaxed, a proposal supported by UNMIK.

On 14 October, the UN Tribunal agreed, saying: “The accused may appear in public and engage in public political activities to the extent which UNMIK finds would be important for a positive development of the political and security situation in Kosovo.â€Â

On 17 October, the prosecution succeeded in stopping this, pending further submissions, the major one having come late on Wednesday.

In its appeal, the prosecution says that the lifting of restrictions - which would not, however, permit Haradinaj to become prime minister again while he awaits trial - creates “a terrible perception†for victims and witnesses and an impression of unfairness, since similar privileges have not been granted to other indictees.

The prosecution says that if upheld, the decision to allow Haradinaj to return to politics would strike fear among his victims and witnesses, who would gain the impression that “power still resides in the hands of the accusedâ€Â.

They also reminded the judges of the so-called Dukagjini Case, in which at least five witnesses in a case of murder involving Haradinaj’s brother Daut and his co-accused, Idriz Balaj, were killed.

No date has been set for the Appeals Chamber to make a final adjudication on the case, but it is expected within the next few weeks.

The fact that UNMIK has lobbied hard for the relaxation of Haradinaj’s terms of release confirms stories circulating in Pristina that the UN and Western diplomats are keen to have Haradinaj play a key political role in the coming months.

Kosovo is now entering a particularly tense period, as talks on its future status are likely to begin by December.

Haradinaj’s successor as prime minister is Bajram Kosumi. However, not having been a guerrilla commander, his authority is limited and his administration has been weakened by media reports of alleged corruption.

One diplomat who deals with Kosovo told ISN Security Watch that he believed that Haradinaj could “play a useful role in terms of telling hardliners he knows to stay calmâ€Â.

Agron Bajram, the editor of the daily newspaper Koha Ditore, told ISN Security Watch that he, like most Kosovo Albanians, would be “delighted†if Haradinaj could return to politics, because he had been a “much-needed†figure while in power and could play a major role in unifying the Albanian side during the upcoming talks on Kosovo’s future.

By contrast, Dusan Batakovic, a senior advisor on Kosovo to Serbian President Boris Tadic, told ISN Security Watch: “We see this as appalling. This unbalanced approach to indictees of different sides is a sending a very wrong message to both Serbs and Albanians.â€Â

What is clear is that since Haradinaj's release, the UN and diplomats in Kosovo have courted him in ways that would have been deemed outrageous and inappropriate if the indictee had been a Serb or Croat.

For example, on 26 September, a huge party was held at the Hotel Grand in Pristina to celebrate the wedding of Haradinaj’s brother. Among the guests were deputy UNMIK chief Larry Rossin and other senior officials and diplomats.

Haradinaj is frequently seen dining in fashionable restaurants in Pristina with foreign guests, who also visit him at his home in the village of Gllogjan.

Oddly, considering the alleged power and influence of Haradinaj, armed men in masks and uniforms have recently begun setting up checkpoints and searching cars not far from Gllogjan.

The Kosovar Albanian press has reported that a group calling itself “The Army for Kosovo’s Independence†has threatened UN officials with death and kidnapping if they act in any way to prevent Kosovo’s independence.

Officials from the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) have said they were only aware of criminal activities.

(By Tim Judah in London)
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=13210