Indicted Kosovo ex-PM surrenders
THE HAGUE, The Netherlands -- Kosovo's former prime minister has arrived in the Netherlands to face war crimes charges at a U.N.-run court for his alleged role in atrocities during the 1998-99 war between ethnic Albanians and Serb forces.
Ramush Haradinaj, 36, flew from Pristina Wednesday a day after resigning from the post as the province's prime minister following an indictment by the war crimes court.
The Associated Press reported that Haradinaj arrived with a police escort at a U.N. detention unit in the Hague.
Neither Haradinaj, a former commander of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army, nor court officials revealed what specific charges he faced.
"I am one of those accused," The Associated Press quoted Haradinaj as saying, suggesting others had also been indicted. "As a result of this indictment I have resigned."
Haradinaj's selection as prime minister late last year was immediately opposed by the government of Serbia-Montenegro.
A former rebel leader of ethnic Albanian forces during the Serb-Albanian fighting in Kosovo, Haradinaj is considered a war criminal by the Serbs, who have issued indictments against him. However, Albanians regard him as a hero.
Fighting raged at the end of the 1990s in Kosovo, an autonomous region in southern Serbia.
It has been under U.N. administration since 1999, when NATO forces drove out mainly Serbian Yugoslavs during bloody fighting between the province's majority Albanians and minority Serbs.
Traveling with Haradinaj to the court was Lahi Brahimaj, another suspect named in the indictment. Brahimaj was a former rebel and a member of the Kosovo Protection Corps, a civilian emergency organization grouping former ethnic Albanian combatants. A third ethnic Albanian former rebel was also indicted by the court.
NATO peacekeepers were out in force throughout the province Wednesday, after 1,000 more troops were flown in to prevent unrest by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians.
Several hundred people were at the airport to see Haradinaj depart Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
Faik Doda, 39, who traveled from the western Kovovo despite freezing weather to see Haradinaj leave, said he was angry at the tribunal's decision.
"If the Kosovo Liberation Army was criminal then why did NATO support them?" he asked. The KLA was seen as an ally to the alliance during NATO airstrikes which ended a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province in 1999.
International officials praised Haradinaj -- a seasoned battlefield commander with a fiery temper and a loyal following -- for his decision to cooperate with the court and called on other countries in the region to follow his example.
Soren Jessen-Petersen, head of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said he respected Haradinaj's decision but could not "hide the fact that his departure will leave a big gap."
He said Haradinaj's decision to cooperate despite maintaining his innocence is a mark of Kosovo's "growing political maturity."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
