Thursday, June 09, 2005

Kosovo Ex-PM Released By UN War Crimes Crt Pending Trial

Kosovo's former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj returned home Thursday after being released by a U.N. tribunal in the Netherlands pending the start of his war crimes trial.

Haradinaj, 36, resigned on March 9, a day after learning of a U.N. indictment accusing him of war crimes committed during the 1998-99 conflict with Serbian government forces. He had been in the U.N. tribunal's custody since. A panel of three judges released him Tuesday until the start of his trial.

Haradinaj is accused of leading a criminal plan to persecute, murder, rape and abuse Serbs and Roma, or Gypsies, in the ethnic Albanian-dominated province. He's also alleged to have participated in beatings and torture, including the abuse of ethnic Albanian civilians believed to have collaborated with Serbs.

He will continue to serve as president of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, the third biggest political party in the province and part of the governing coalition, a statement from his lawyer said.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about Milosevic ?
Thomas Meza, AZ

Anonymous said...

What about Milosevic?

Milosevic does not recognise the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, did not hand himself in, does not want to face international justice, he is accused of genocide and very recently a very strong link between him and the genocide in Srebrenica has been established.

So, yes, what about him?

Go to sleep! Your tiny brain obviously needs a break.

Anonymous said...

What about Milosevic?

He's the biggest war criminal in Europe since WWII. He fought wars against the Slovenes, Bosnians, Croats, and Kosovars; slaughtered civlians & prisoners, destroyed hundreds of Christian churches and Muslim mosques, and plundered his own country. He should have been executed years ago but the pansy Europeans running the ICTY don't believe in the death penalty.

Anonymous said...

Another commnet by another bitter Serb. Hit the ignore button for the comment above.

Anonymous said...

Youre right Phantom 4. I know hundreds of soldiers from different countries, US, France, Poland, GB, Greece etc, who came to Kosovo with a thought that Serbs were the bad guys and Albanians the victims. EVERYONE without exeption changed their mind after a while and understand that the Albanians LOVE to be victims of nothing. I have met some very good Albanians in Kosovo, dont get me wrong, but its sad and little bit funny too, that Albanians think that its only Serbs who mistrust them. I know about so much criminality in Kosovo, that I could write a whole book about it. EU and USA know it of course as well. Therefore there will be no independence. To the independence believers: Why do you think France and Netherlands (and 4-5 other countries who have not had referendeum yet) voted no to the constitution ?? Could it be that they dont want anymore countries in EU ? Expansion ? I dont think so. You will have freedom, but total independence, sorry but no way. Wait and see.

Anonymous said...

Dude you're supposedly only a soldier. You don't know anything about what Blair and Bush are thinking.

Anonymous said...

They released Haradinaj to soften the blow of Kosova not getting full independence right away. He will try to corral the fueding groups.

Anonymous said...

Haradinajs so called case is built entirely from serbian sources. In fact, Serbia did everything to make Hague indicte him. That includes fabricating "evidence" of his "crimes".
The fact that Hague accepted these "facts" is ridicoulus, but the fraud will be exposed soon enough.

A couple of families in Kosova, whose members are said to be victims of Haradinaj, have gone public and denied these silly accusations. Those persons were in reality killed by serbian forces. Those relatives were prepared to go and witness in the Hague if neccessary. And this came within days of his journey to Hague.

Even the leader for the Ashkali community strongly denied that Haradinaj is involved in crimes against his community. He even wrote a letter to the tribune denying these accusations. He was also prepare to witness in Hague in defence of Haradinaj.

So much for the fear of Haradinaj intimidating witneses in Kosova. Most of those "witneses" are in Serbia, instructed by serbian intellegence services. I don't believe Haradinajs can reach them there...

So, phantom and you other bashers, why don't you get your facts straight before typing? You just seem bitter...

Anonymous said...

Bitter ? No way, never been so happy in my life before. But what matter does it to try to explain to you ..you seem not very clever. First of all. I am not a Serb, not even from the Balkans. But I know a lot about both Serbs and Albanians in my profession. Try to change your mindset for only 10 seconds. What if Im right that Haradinaj is a criminal like Milosevic ? Think IF he is.... would you still support him.....yes of course, because you have no other heroes...your mind is locked...and therefore this will handicap you in the future. You dont have to believe me...I simply dont care. Because you will see for yourself in the future. First of all you think seriously that Kosovo will be independent. Well, good luck. Maybe Kosovo will be much more free than today, but independent country.....I promise you, its impossible, you will see. Im telling you...do not hope to much because you will be very sorry. Many Serbs did so incredible bad things to Albanians in Kosovo, no discussion about that. And many Albanian cowards did the same when the S forces ran away. We did not help you to get revenge. You should punish your "brothers" that rioted last March, because they really sat the "line" for the international communitys stance agaist the Albanian people in Kosovo. My God, how stupid could one be ? I am from US and my grand grandparents are from central/northern Europe. Our people have slowly but firmly changed our mind about Kosovo, especially after last March. My government released 10m $ last week to Belgrade and more is coming. Another secret you might not know. ICTY released Haradinaj because they at the same time released 2 serbs from Bosnia.
Teddie, Ft Lauderdale, FL

Anonymous said...

Are you finished ranting?

I never said you were serb. I really don't care about your nationality. And you have every right to your own opinions, whatever they are.

But your gross generalizations and sheer dumb ignorance is simply amazing.

First of all, how do you know that we will not get independence? Are you a state official with insight on US foreign policy? I doubt that very much. You can speak only for yourself.
You don't seem to have a clue about politics anyway. Kosovars will not get independence cause we're cowards?! Yeah, great argument there... "Can't beat an idiot in his own game".

Second issue, you mention US giving help to Serbia, whole 10m US$! Wow!
Have you ever heard of carrot and the stick? Probably not by reading the quality of your posts.
Serbia is only getting some of it's own frozen assets back, IF they help arrest Mladic.

And I don't know what Haradinaj has done or not during the war (and neither do you). But the things he is accused of right now are bogus. Fabrications by serbian services to destibilize the region at a crucial time.
But that backfired bigtime. Haradinaj showed the whole world (and especially other Balkan countries) how it's done. Went straight to Hague, with no hesitation. That's because he knows that accusations against him are fabrictions.
And you call Albanians cowards?!
What about Serbian "heroes" that have been hidin for ten years?

You are a sorry person with a twisted look on reality. You think that your own personal prejudice can be applied to the rest of the world.
But guess what? It's time to wake up from your la-la land fantasies and see reality. And no mater how much you bitch, you can't change the fact that Kosova is going towards independence...

Tosi
Sweden