Kosovo's Government Spokesman,Accused Of Leaking Stories, Quits

PRISTINA (AP)--Kosovo's government spokesman resigned from his post after being accused of leaking stories criticizing the province's prime minister to the media.

In a resignation letter sent late Thursday, Daut Dauti, the spokesman for Kosovo's prime minister Bajram Kosumi, said he was "happy to depart from this group of people who act like aliens."

Dauti's resignation followed days of media reports accusing Kosumi of corruption.

"I have been accused of being guilty for some stories that appeared in the press. I sincerely believe I am not guilty (and) that the media carry stories which bare the stench of irresponsibility and corruption," Dauti said.

Throughout the week, media reports focused on Kosumi after he was pressured to disclose how he paid for a private jet to return to Kosovo from his holiday in Turkey. The province's media estimated that the cost of the jet might have reached EUR20,000.

Kosumi responded that "his friends" paid for the trip. Opposition parties called for him to resign, saying he breached Kosovo's anti-corruption law, which bars government officials from accepting gifts worth more than EUR50.

Some officials from the Democratic League of Kosovo, the largest party in the coalition government, have expressed dissatisfaction with Dauti recently.

Kosumi was elected prime minister in March after the province's previous prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, stepped down after an indictment by the U.N. court on war crimes against Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

Kosovo is run like a de-facto U.N. protectorate and has been patrolled by North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeepers since 1999, when the alliance's bombing ended a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian militants. It has an elected parliament, government and a president.

The province's government is made up of a coalition between Kosovo's largest party the Democratic League of Kosovo and Kosumi's smaller Alliance for the Future of Kosovo.