Sunday, March 4, 2007
Key witnesses murdered, Albanian war criminal likely to go free
March 4, 2007 -- As he was departing for a war crimes trial in the Hague, Kosovo Albanian former Prime Minister, Ramush Hardinaj appeared on the Kosovo Albanian TV and called upon his Muslim kinsmen to stay calm and not incite violence that will preclude this Muslim dominated province from becoming independent.
Billboards with the slogan "With Ramush" were put up throughout the province by his supporters.
As he was departing, a long line of Muslim Albanians respectfully stood to shake hands with this Albanian Muslim hero that the Hague Court has charged with atrocities to murder, rape and torture Serbs and Gypsies in this Muslim dominated province.
The non governmental International Crisis Group's Pristina office also finds Haradinaj's departure to face justice for his atrocities a tragic event.
His absence "is going to leave something of a hole here," Alex Anderson from the Pristina office of the International Crisis Group said.
Others with similar opinion as this group say that Haradinaj, despite charges of committing atrocities against Serbs, is actually their true friend because once, they say, he appealed to an enraged Muslim Albanian mob to stop the torching of a Christian Serb Monastery.
"I need to go back again, with full confidence like two years ago that justice will prevail," Haradinaj said in a statement distributed to reporters after he met with Kosovo's president and prime minister prior to his departure for the Hague trial.
"I will go to tell the truth and nothing more," he said.
When the judge at the Hague Court asked Haradinaj to enter a plea to the charges, he stood and replied: "I plead not guilty and I am offended by these accusations."
Haradinaj's confidence that he will prevail at the Hague Court and prove his innocence is increasingly more likely as scores of witnesses that the Hague Court is relying on for the incriminating testimony are being murdered, are suddenly dying or have changed their testimony.
On February 16, an ethnic Albanian witness Kujtim Berisha was ran over by a car and instantly died in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica. Podgorica newspapers have reported that, prior to his death, Berisha met with an unnamed "foreign organization or foreign state" concerning the Haradinaj trial.
Another Haradinaj prosecution witness, Tahir Zemaj also suddenly died under mysterious circumstances.
Still another, Hasan Rrustemi, a NATO protected witness, was murdered at the farmer's market in Mala Krusa near Prizren with the message that all those working against the KLA would fare similarly.
KLA is a Kosovo Albanian terrorist group that has recently bombed UN and OSCE targets in the Kosovo province.
Meanwhile, a family of an ethnic Albanian Skender Kuci, who was abducted and killed by Haradinaj's forces, has changed their testimony claiming, now, that Kuci was murdered by Serbs. Kuci's are rejecting any cooperation with the Hague Court.
Haradinaj's defense has visited most of the key witnesses prepared to testify at the Hague trial and now, most of these witnesses have either changed their testimony or a refusing to testify.
Some of the witnesses have even switched their political affiliation after meeting with Haradinaj's lawyers and are supporters of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Haradinaj's political party.
"He is going to the Hague not only to defend himself, but to defend our war for freedom," Prime Minister Agim Ceku said in a radio address in reference to Haradinaj. "We're convinced that truth and justice are on Ramush's side."
March 4, 2007 serbianna (c)
Well of coarse he's offended. They are always offended by something...filth of the earth