Former Kosovo PM retried before UN war crimes court

 

Published on Aug 16, 2011

 

 THE HAGUE (AFP) - Ex-Kosovan prime minister Ramush Haradinaj and two of his allies are to appear before the former Yugoslav war crimes court this week for crimes committed during Kosovo's 1998-99 war, in the tribunal's first ever partial retrial.

On Thursday, Haradinaj, 43, and Idriz Balaj, 39 will be retried on six war crimes charges for murder, cruel treatment and torture before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). A third accused, Lahi Brahimaj, 41, will face four counts before the Hague-based tribunal for his role in the fight between independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Belgrade forces of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Together with his two close associates Haradinaj is the most prominent figure in the separatist ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), accused of wanting to establish total military control in an area in western Kosovo during the country's 1998-99 war, by killing, torturing and beating Serbs or those suspected of collaborating with them.

The three are back before the ICTY after its appeals chamber last year quashed their war crimes acquittals, saying they should be retried because witnesses were intimidated during their initial 2007-8 trial, which lasted more than 10 months.

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