Kosovo PM Indicted for War Crimes; to Resign

Reuters ^ | Tuesday, March 8, 2005 | By Matt Robinson and Shaban Buza

[Jane_N]

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Kosovo's ethnic Albanian prime minister has been charged with war crimes by the United Nations tribunal and will resign his post Tuesday to answer accusations in The Hague, a senior government source said.

Rumours that Ramush Haradinaj was about to be charged by Hague chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte had circulated since before he became prime minister last December, raising fears of violence if NATO peacekeepers were forced to arrest him.

"Yes, the Prime Minister has been informed he has an indictment," a senior official in the Kosovo government told Reuters. "We have to face it.

"He has informed the President (Ibrahim Rugova). He will resign today...and will fly to the Hague tomorrow."

A year ago, mobs of ethnic Albanians attacked Serb enclaves in the United Nations-run province in two days of rioting which left 19 people dead and hundreds of homes in ashes.

Haradinaj had made clear he would not defy the tribunal.

But peacekeepers were taking no chances. Germany flew in extra soldiers to bolster its peacekeeping contingent in the NATO-led KFOR mission, and Britain deployed an extra 500 troops Monday after an urgent request from NATO, a KFOR spokesman said.

The force currently numbers nearly 20,000.

The United Nations mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, Monday raised its security threat assessment to "black" in western Kosovo, ordering non-essential staff to stay off the streets.

HARD MAN TURNED POLITICIAN

Details of the indictment against Haradinaj have not been made public. The U.N. court has investigated him over his role in the 1998-99 guerrilla war against Serb forces and the alleged murder of Kosovo Serb civilians and Albanian "collaborators."

Haradinaj, 36, spent much of the 1990s as an economic migrant in France, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland, drifting between jobs as a construction worker and nightclub bouncer.

He returned to Kosovo in early 1998 to command the western wing of the Kosovo Liberation Army, helping to mount what was to become a full-scale insurgency against Serb oppression and earning a reputation for ruthlessness.

Two of Haradinaj's brothers were killed fighting Serb security forces and a third was found guilty of war crimes against Serbs in 2002.

Haradinaj's political party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) was the smaller of two parties to emerge from the ranks of the KLA.

He entered Kosovo's first interim government in February 2002 in a coalition with former guerrilla commander Hashim Thaci and veteran pacifist president Rugova, who leads Kosovo's largest political party.

In October 2004 elections, his AAK won nine seats in Kosovo's 120-seat parliament. Haradinaj later announced an surprise coalition deal with President Rugova, becoming prime minister in December 2004 and confining Thaci to the opposition.

[dj_animal_2000]

Nennsy...take care....!!!!

All prayers go to you.

Pozdrav

dj

[dj_animal_2000]

The Haradinaj Brothers and Their Involvement in Terrorism in Kosovo

Profile: Ramush (HilmI) Haradinaj

Ramush (Hilmi) Haradinaj, 36, the former nightclub bouncer who was named by the Kosovo provincial parliament as Prime Minister of the Serbian province during the first week of December 2004, has a long and serious record of criminal and terrorist activities, including links with the al-Qaida terrorist movement. He is expected to be indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. The charges were expected to include the killing of 40 Serb and Albanian civilians near his home village of Glodjane in the Summer of 1998.

Haradinaj was born on July 3, 1968, in the village of Glodjani, Municipality of Decani. He is suspected of having committed criminal acts of terrorism, association with hostile intentions, and the murder of civilians; 108 criminal charges were brought against him. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1989, after which he joined the French Foreign Legion. In 1996, back in the Balkans, he completed his diversionary terrorist training. In Albania, he took part in establishing the logistics bases of al-Qaida in Kuks and Tropoj, and later used these bases, with a group of trusted associates, as key elements in the chain to transport weapons to Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province.

In mid-1997, Haradinaj illegally entered Serbia's Kosovo province, and, together with his brothers, Daut and Shkelzen, organized terrorist attacks against the police department in the village of Ranic, Municipality of Decani, and the village of Ponosevac, Municipality of Djakovica, and on the refugee camps in Junik and Babaloc.

At the beginning of 1998, in Glodjani, he formed a diversionary terrorist group which, following his orders, intercepted and threatened Serbs and Albanians loyal to the Republic of Serbia. This group, headed by the Haradinaj brothers, attacked a police patrol in the village of Glodjani, in which Miodrag Otovic was murdered.

In April 1998, the terrorist group, led by Ramush Haradinaj, established the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) general staff in Glodjani for Metohija, the members of which became his brothers Daut and Skeljzen, as well as Hilmi Haradinaj, Faton Mehmeti, Rasim Haradinaj, Fadil Nimonaj, Maliq Ndrecaj, and others, while Ramush himself was engaged in the promotion and establishment of local general staffs on the overall region of Decani and Djakovica. At the same time, on his initiative, a special KLA unit was formed in Glodjani, called "Black Eagles", whose commander was Idriz Balaj, aka "Toger". Under the leadership of Ramush Haradinaj, the "Black Eagles" kidnapped and murdered dozens of Serb civilians. A number of bodies were found in the Radonjic Lake and village wells in the Decani Municipality.

After Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) was formed out of the KLA, following the end of the NATO attacks on Serbia, Haradinaj was appointed Deputy Commander to the KPC Commander, Agim eku. Towards the end of 2000, he left the KPC and established the ABK party. In order to maintain his influence over KPC, he managed to place his brother Daut as the commander of the 3rd RTG of KPC which carries out the assassinations of Ramush's political rivals. Haradinaj also has close connection within the KPC structure, bearing in mind that a large number of policemen and officers of this formation were active in KLA at the time when Haradinaj was the commander of the KLA general staff in Metohija.

Ramush Haradinaj has been regarded by Serbian authorities as the most influential criminal in Metohija, in the region of Pec, Decani and Djakovica. In cooperation with Ekrem Lluka and Naser Kelmendi, he created a criminal organization which controls the organized smuggling of drugs, cigarettes, oil, oil derivates, weapons, vehicles and other goods. His close associates, Isa Balaj, Arton Tolaj, Avdyl Mushkoli and Ali Haskaj, all from Decani, are in contact with the members of the Albanian mafia.

A part of the acquired profit from the criminal activities of Haradinaj and his criminal group was given to KPC, and from the same source, a significant part of the financial means was forwarded to Nazim Haradinaj, who supplied the Albanian terrorists in Macedonia with weapons.

Haradinaj belongs to an influential family in the Pec region, which has great rivals in the Rugova and the Musaj clan, which traditionally aids Ibrahim Rugova's DSK political party in Kosovo & Metohija, and formerly had close connections with FARK of Bujar Bukosi. On July 7, 2000, he was seriously wounded in the village of Strelci, in the western part of K&M, as a result of an inter-mafia conflict between the groups belonging to Hashim Thaqi (Thaci) and Haradinaj and the Musaj family. Before and after that, a series of murders were committed as a consequence of the blood feud among the warring clans.

In the second half of 2002, an investigation was launched, and Daut Haradinaj and a group of top KPC officers were arrested and sentenced to a number of years in prison. Beside that, criminal charges were brought in the District Court in Pec, against Ramush Haradinaj.

Aiming to free his brother from prison, Haradinaj, with the mediation of Avdyl Mushkoli, organized demonstrations and initiated the formation of a group of some 30 people who attempted to release Daut Haradinaj by force from the Dubrava prison, Istok Municipality.

In January 2003, Haradinaj organized the assassination of Tahir Zemaj, a FARK commander, his son Enis and nephew Hysen, on the Pristina-Pec road, in the vicinity of a lumber plant, due to the fact that Zemaj was supposed to be the State witness in the proceedings against Daut Haradinaj and himself.

Following Ramush Haradinaj's orders, Maliq Ndrecaj was sent to the Vitina region, in order to organize the terrorist Albanian National Army (ANA), which proof of Haradinaj's involvement in the incidents in southern Serbia. He was especially active in arms procurement and the secret training of terrorists from this region, which was organized in the villages along the administrative border.

Dossier: Involvement of Haradinaj Brothers in Terrorist and Criminal Activities in Kosovo

Intelligence sources, and sources within the Kosovo Islamist and Albanian national movements, have begun to provide detailed information on the two brothers of the newly-elected Prime Minister of the Serbian province of Kosovo & Metohija, Ramush (Hilmi) Haradinaj, 36. Mr Haradinaj, despite his election by the Albanian-controlled regional Parliament in the Serbian province, was expected to soon be indicted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.


Mr Haradinaj's two brothers, Bujar (Rasim) and Daut (Hilmi) (alias "Cufi" or "Cripple"), have been heavily involved with Ramush Haradinaj in criminal, terrorist and insurgent activities in Kosovo and elsewhere in the Balkans. The basic files on the two brothers of the provincial premier are as follows:

BUJAR (Rasim) HARADINAJ

Born on May 15, 1976, in the village of Glodjani, Municipality of Decani, in the Kosovo territory.

As a member of the armed, ethnic-Albanian formation which was active on the territory of the operative zone of Dukadjin, he took part in more than 87 assassinations, 29 kidnappings and set up a number of jails in the villages of Glodjani, Belanica, Likovac, Jablanica and Smonica in the Municipality of Prizren. He was involved in the rape and sexual harassment of a number of individuals and in the destruction of considerable property.

As well, he was responsible for some 180 terrorist attacks, among which were armed attacks on the villages of Ljodja and Babaloc, in the middle of 1998, as well as for the forced expulsion of the population from the territory of Djakovica, Pec and Decani, and for setting the Orthodox church in the village of Gornji Rasic on fire.

Bujar Haradinaj was the immediate perpetrator of a number of armed attacks on the members of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbia & Montenegro forces. Together with Agim Selmani and Daut Haradinaj, he took part in the attack on the members of the Army and police, in August 1998, in the vicinity of the village of Saptej, Municipality of Decani, and headed a group of terrorists in the attack against the members of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the village of Jablanica, in the Municipality of Djakovica, as well as in the attacks against the policemen and soldiers in the village of Glodjani, in October 1998 and in the Dasinovac bridge, Municipality of Decani in November 1999.

In addition, he has been connected with the smuggling of arms into Kosovo & Metohija.

DAUT (Hilmi) HARADINAJ, alias "Cufi" or "Cripple"

Born on April 6, 1978, in the village of Glodjani, in the Municipality of Decani, in the Kosovo territory. As a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) member, he was seriously wounded in the conflicts with the Serbian security forces and was left without an arm.

Following an initiative of the Ramus brothers, Daut and Shkelzen Haradinaj, at the beginning of 1998, he formed the KLA general staff in Glodjani, whose commander became Ramush (ie: the current Prime Minister of Kosovo), and his deputy Daut Haradinaj who was subsequently named a member of the KLA general staff and the commander of the 131st brigade "Isuf Grvala". Members of this brigade committed a large number of crimes in the Deeani region.

In the Glodjani prison, which was under direct control of Ramush and Daut Haradinaj, a large number of Serbs were murdered, amongst whom Slobodan Radojevic, Milos and Milica Radunovic, Milka Vlahovic, Darinka Kovae, Novica Vujisic, Zdravko Radunovic, Dragan Djukic, Miloje and Vinka Krstic, and others. Daut Haradinaj also directly participated in the murder of Slobodan Praseevic and the policeman Milorad Otasevic. He is also held responsible for the crimes against the Serbs and Albanians loyal to the Republic of Serbia, as well as those who could have been potential witnesses of the crimes committed by the Haradinaj brothers. He is the direct perpetrator of a number of assassinations, and he organized the assassination of Tahir Zemaj, as well as a score of other political rivals of Hashim Thaqi (Thaci).

After the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) was formed by NATO and European authorities out of the KLA, Daut Haradinaj was the deputy commander and, afterwards, the commander of the 3rd RTG. Upon achieving KPC command, he was in charge of coordinating operations with the Islamic terrorist organization al-Qaida . In that capacity, he organized a meeting with leading al-Qaida military leader Mohammed al-Zawahiri, brother of the ideological leader of al-Qaida, Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri.

Daut Haradinaj was suspended from KPC in 2001 because he was placed on the US blacklist of organizations and individuals who, due to terrorist activities, had restricted access to financial aid; ie: who were forbidden to enter the US.

Until his arrest by KFOR in July 2002, Daut Haradinaj directly participated in the attacks on the security forces of the Republic of Macedonia, together with National Liberation Army (NLA: also known as ANA; a re-emergence of the KLA) members, and he was also active in the area of arms and drugs trafficking, as part of the criminal group led by Ramush Haradinaj.

He was accused of war crimes committed against Kosovo's Albanians in June 1999.

[Nennsy]

It's 10:47 am here, and everything is calm.
Last night there were peaceful student protests in Prisitna, and today protests are expected Kosovo wide. There's heavy military presence and Kosovo Police is on the streets.
I'll get back to you later with new update.

[Nennsy]

Albanian Liberation Army issues statement on Haradinaj’s indictment

Epoka e Re carries the third communiqué issued by the Albanian Liberation Army, which says that the indictment against Haradinaj has been dictated by Serbia and represents the peak of injustices against Kosovo.

The communiqué issued from Prekaz further reads that the ALA claims responsibility for all explosions throughout Kosovo towns last week and says that they were not targeting human factor, they were just as a warning.

They call all the members of the three former armies (KLA, UCPMB and ANA) for a general mobilization until the mission is complete.

[Nennsy]

Holbrook calls for Kosovo independence | 15:42 -> 22:29 March 08 | B92

WASHINGTON -- Tuesday – The former US ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrook, said today that Kosovo must become independent.

Speaking at a conference on international diplomacy and ethnic conflicts, Holbrook said that separation from the mother state is sometimes successful when small ethnic groups in a large community are neglected in employment and economic development, but that separation is not always the best solution.

“Not every ethnic group can become an independent state. In such cases a way must be found for ethnic minorities to leave in peace, without losing their culture and rights,” said Holbrook, adding that there would be an endless number of wars around the world if every ethnic community wanted its own country.

“Yugoslavia, which was united under communist rule, with the fall of communism was divided into five countries and soon will be divided into seven countries. Kosovo must be independent from Serbia-Montenegro because Albanians are predominant in Kosovo and Serbia-Montenegro, I am convinced, will fall apart in twelve or eighteen months,” said Holbrook.

“We must find a way in which minorities can live in states in which they are not ethnically predominant, in a way in which all religious, cultural, political and other rights are protected. The US can’t always through diplomacy encourage separatism, but must help endangered ethnic groups when it is necessary,” he added.

[Nennsy]

Deçani will not stay calm (Express)

Express carries some vox-populi conducted in Deçan/Decani. They all express
the shock they felt when hearing about the Haradinaj's indictment of by the
ICTY. "You could see it in the faces of the people in town", says the
article.

A youngster who wanted to remain anonymous said 'There will be no calm in
Deçan, forget about it. They are treading on all of us who fought, on
martyrs of the nation. He defended Deçani last year when all Kosovo was in
flames. If he is taken, all of us are treaded on and so is Kosovo'. He went
on to say they are waiting to see what to do. 'We are waiting. Nothing is
known as yet. No comment. Demonstrations do not make any sense now. Whom to
demonstrate against? One thing is clear, there will be no longer calm in
Deçan, and in Kosovo', he said.

Upon hearing the news, the KLA War Veterans from Peja region gathered: the
head of the association, Avdyl Mushkolaj did not say clearly what the
Association is going to do, but he asked all the institutions of Kosovo to
suspend all political activities and to follow the example of the minister
Ahmet Isufi.

'A black cloud has covered Deçani. It remains a question mark what us, the
war veterans will do. This indictment is an insult to the liberation war,
and to Kosovo. We will stay close to Haradinaj's family as we did before.
When this family is touched, the heart of Kosovo is touched. We cannot say
at the moment what we are going to do over the next coming days', said
Mushkolaj.

[mark502inf]

Nennsy, hope all is still going well for you & everyone else in Kosovo. Who evacuated you? And where did you go?

I think KFOR and the UNMIK police are much better prepared now than last March. I know the German military in particular was highly embarassed by their failures then and, if something happens again, may very much surprise any opposition with the forcefulness of their response.

However, most of the Kosovar Albanian leadership undertands the stakes involved so I doubt there will be any widespread problems. Hopefully none at all--as long as they keep the hot-heads in Decani under control!

Good luck Nennsy and thanks for the updates.

[Nennsy]

Thank you Mark for your kind words. I feel the same way.
I hope that everything goes in peace. It's for the benefit of all.

Right now, there are peaceful protests in Decani. If it stays like this, then I don't anticipate problems anywhere.

When it comes to me, I was taken out of town to a secure location. Organization I work for, evacuated "staff at risk" and I am one of those staffers. That's all I can tell you at the moment.

[Nennsy]

Haradinaj left today at 11am my time. Several hundreds of people gathered to send him off. Everything went quiet. It is not clear if SRSG Soren Jensen Petersen got on a military plane with him, as mentioned in the media, since most of the press was not allowed to enter the airport's runway.

[ma bell]

Where in Kosovo are you getting online?

[Nennsy]

Am not sure I understand your question. What's the point in it?

[mark502inf]

B92 from Belgrade has a pretty good re-cap of the whole situation here.

And below is a statement by our man in Kosovo:

Statement by the Chief of Mission [Pristina, US Office Pristina] - I thank former PM Haradinaj for his statement earlier today, announcing his resignation and intention to travel to the Hague to defend himself against the indictment brought by the ICTY. Mr. Haradinaj will now have the chance to defend himself in front of the world, and I know he is well prepared to do so. The U.S. supports the ICTY and calls upon all parties - in Kosovo and elsewhere in the region - to cooperate fully with the Tribunal. This is a test of a society’s commitment to the rule of law. U.S. policy toward Kosovo remains unchanged. We are committed to the standards review in mid-2005, and, if that review is positive to begin a discussion on final status. This moment represents a challenge for Kosovo’s democratic institutions and its people. I look forward to working with the Provisional Government, and a new Prime Minister fully committed to making progress on standards.

[Do not dub me shapka broham]

The UCK?(!)

Blecch!

(Audible retching sound.)

-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)

[ma bell]

The point is that in Kosovo, where in Serbian Kosovo or albanian controlled areas can you find an internet cafe? I know in Serbian Kos-Mitrovica and in Leposavic you can't. The only areas are the KFOR/UNMIK or NGO's (euro-usa)locales.

[montyspython]

"The U.S. supports the ICTY"

But the US will not support an international tribunal when it comes to the possibility of indicting US personnel for the fear of it being used as a political tool.

As long as American's are not indicted, then we support it. I suppose we only break rules, not follow them.

[dj_animal_2000]

Deçani will not stay calm

The first target in Decani will be the 14th century monastry, I guess....

Are still Italian KFOR's protecting it...???

[mark502inf]

The ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) and the ICC (International Criminal Court) are not comparable.

The ICTY that is trying Milosevic and Haradinaj has a very narrow and limited jurisdiction--geographically to the boundaries of the former Yugoslavia, in time to the beginning of the recent Balkan Wars 15 years ago, in type of crime to crimes against humanity and further, the ICTY has oversight from the UN Security Council.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction everywhere over everybody for a long laundry list of crimes, many of which (e.g. "Aggression") are so generally defined as to enable anyone with an ax to grind to grind it there. The ICC is self-regulating--they hear their own appeals, interpret their own law, they have no oversight by any other body, to include the UN.

I suppose we only break rules, not follow them

What rules did we break? Joining the ICC involves signing and ratifying a treaty. We have not done so. Your suggestion that we "break rules" by not following treaties we have not agreed to is without merit.

[Bravo96]

I remember this guy from when I was served in Kosovo in 2000. When he was wounded they brought him to our med unit at Bondsteel. He received "star" treatment....my fellow intel soldiers took photos of him all bandaged up. He definitely was "a person of interest".

[DTA]

>>>>>The ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) and the ICC (International Criminal Court) are not comparable<<<<<

1. ICC statute was writen by using ICTY statute as a starting point. ICTY wrote it's own statute, as you would say " self-regulating--they hear their own appeals, interpret their own law, they have no oversight by any other body, to include the UN."

Both ICTY and ICC would be outright illegal in U.S. Double jeopardy. secret indictments, secret witnesses, changing of court procedures during the process, use of court clerks as witnesses, deals with terriorists to commit pewrjury on behalf of prosecution, frivolous persecution, relying on fabricated documents and hearsay, and so on until you vomit.

>>>>The ICTY that is trying Milosevic and Haradinaj has a very narrow and limited jurisdiction--geographically to the boundaries of the former Yugoslavia, in time to the beginning of the recent Balkan Wars 15 years ago, in type of crime to crimes against humanity <<<<<< and further,

ICTY does not prosecute all violations of law and crimes against humanity. Namely, U.S. involvement in Operation Storm 1995 that culminated in the largest ethnic cleansing of 1990s civil wars, NATO bombing of civilian targets with DU, and war crimes during NATO aggression on Yugoslavia. All these crimes have occured 'geographically to the boundaries of the former Yugoslavia' since January 1990.

the ICTY has oversight from the UN Security Council.

UN Security Council is not Judical Arm of UN and therefore does not have the power to create judicary auxiliary organ (i.e to delegate non-existing power to auxiliary organ)

It was an oversight when ICTY was hastilly created for POLITICAL, NOT JUDICAL PURPOSE. (see UNSEC resolution on creation of ICTY - to stop alleged 'Serbian aggression' not to prosecute crimes.

>>>>The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction everywhere over everybody for a long laundry list of crimes, many of which (e.g. "Aggression") are so generally defined as to enable anyone with an ax to grind to grind it there. The ICC is self-regulating--they hear their own appeals, interpret their own law, they have no oversight by any other body, to include the UN.<<<<

It does not. Five nuclear countries are out - US, Russia, China, Pakistan, India.

ICTY shows why W was right to pull out of ICC, because ICTY/ICC is not jurisprudence, it is travesty of Justice, like Hitler's People courts or Stalin's Moscow trials.

[DTA]

>>>>>>He received "star" treatment....my fellow intel soldiers took photos of him all bandaged up. He definitely was "a person of interest".<<<<<

Not only this, Haradinaj was airlifted to U.S. military hospital in Germany on U.S. taxpayer's dime.

It is also interesting how Kennedy School at Harvard was eager to host Haradinaj on several occasions and treat him with respect.

That would make great advertisement for Harvard University - "We make Prime Ministers out of common criminals and terrorists".