Ramush Haradinaj
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ramush Haradinaj | |
 |
|
|
|
|
| In office 3 December 2004 – March 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | Bajram Rexhepi |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Bajram Kosumi |
|
|
|
| Born | 3 July 1968 Glodjane, Kosovo, Yugoslavia (now Serbia[1]) |
| Political party | AAK |
Ramush Haradinaj (born 3 July 1968 in the village of Glodjane near Dečani, in Kosovo, Yugoslavia) is a former guerrilla leader and prime minister of Kosovo. He finished High School in Đakovica (Gjakova) and graduated from the Faculty of Law in the University of Priština.
Contents |
[edit] Pre-war years
His early life and war years are described in his book of memoirs called A Story of War and Liberation. A second book, The peace of the General: the end of War, due to be published in English in early 2007, describes the post-war period when Haradinaj was central to the international intervention in Kosovo, the transformation of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) into a civilian led civil-defence force and the beginnings of locally led political institutions.
After the demonstrations of Kosovo Albanians in 1989 and the increased suppression of the local ethnic Albanian population that followed, Haradinaj emigrated to Switzerland, where he joined the National Movement of Kosovo, from which originated the KLA. Haradinaj had by then completed his military service in the Yugoslav Army, where he had come to the attention of his superiors as someone who might pose a future threat to the State.[citation needed] While in Switzerland, he worked in construction and security.
Throughout this period of exile, Haradinaj prepared himself for a future conflict with Serbia.[citation needed] He began running ultra-marathons -up to 100 kilometres through the Alps- and intensively studied martial arts. Throughout the 1990's he would return to Kosovo illegally.[citation needed] His treks across the border provided him with first hand knowledge of routes which he would later use to bring guns and supplies in order to help the war effort. By 1996 and 1997 he was also taking part in organizing KLA camps in Albanian border villages such as Kukës, Morina, and Tropojë.[citation needed]
In 1997, Hardinaj was returning once more to Kosovo when he was surprised by a Serbian patrol which opened fire on the group he was travelling with. Although the group managed to retreat back into Albania, Haradinaj's younger brother Luan was shot and killed. Ramush refused to leave his brother's body in the hands of Serbian forces and stayed behind to retrieve it. He carried his brother over the mountain, managing to avoid Serbian fire in order to provide a proper burial.[citation needed]
[edit] War against Serbia
After Haradinaj's permanent return to Kosovo in February 1998, the conflict in Kosovo erupted. Between 28 February and 5 March, Serb forces attacked the villages of Likoshan, Qirez, and Precaz. According to the indictment against Haradinaj at the ICTY, "during these attacks 83 Kosovo Albanians were killed. Among the dead victims were elderly people as well as at least 24 women and children. During the attack on Qirez a pregnant woman was shot in the face and a baby was killed in Prekaze. Many of the victims were shot at a very close range. Reports indicated that men were summarily executed in front of their homes and that some of the victims were shot while in police custody. During the attack on Prekaze the entire Jashari family, except for an 11 year old girl was killed." [2] The Jasharis, like the Haradinajs, were a prominent Albanian family committed to resisting Serbia's military presence in Kosovo and were perceived as a threat by Belgrade. Forewarned by this attack, the Haradinajs were prepared for Serbian forces to make a similar move against them.
On 24 March Serbian forces surrounded the village of Glodjane and commenced their operation[3][4]. The Haradinaj's however were able to use their home village to good effect and under the leadership of Ramush, they successfully repelled the attack. This success propelled Haradinaj into a leadership position in the KLA in Western Kosovo. By May 1998 he was regarded as commander of Glodjane and surrounding villages, and by June 1998 he became commander of the Dukagjin Operational Zone (in Metohija).[citation needed] Because of Western Kosovo's proximity to Albania, which provided a corridor through which the KLA could procure weapons, Haradinaj's area saw some of the heaviest fighting of the conflict and Ramush established himself as one of the KLA's most able commanders.[citation needed]
[edit] From soldier to politician
After demilitarization of the KLA following NATO's entry into Kosovo in 1999, the KLA was transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC). In this new force, Haradinaj was a deputy commander, under Agim Çeku, and is considered to have been a central figure in ensuring the successful transition into a civilian controlled force.[citation needed] He retired from the KPC on April 11, 2000, and announced that he was entering politics. He founded the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), on April 29, 2000 and was elected president of the party. This decision caused disappointment to many of the more militant former KLA supporters who had hoped to see Haradinaj enter a political alliance with Hashim Thaçi.[citation needed] Thaçi had been the political leader of the KLA and by 2000 was the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the main opposition to the Ibrahim Rugova-led Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), which had been opposed to the KLA. Haradinaj gave as his reason for forming a new party the need to establish a new paradigm for the future well-being of democratic politics in Kosovo, untainted by war-time divisions.[citation needed]
Haradinaj is regarded as a national hero by many Kosovo Albanians.[citation needed] Nonetheless he enjoyed limited electoral success up to and including the elections of 2004, being perceived as a soldier rather than a politician.[citation needed] Following the elections of October 2004, however, he entered into coalition talks with the LDK, led by the then President of Kosovo, the late Dr. Ibrahim Rugova. The outcome was a government with Haradinaj as Prime Minister. In the Kosovo Assembly, Haradinaj’s candidature for Prime Minister, to the surprise of most observers, won the support of 72 members out of 120 with only three opposing.
Haradinaj’s coalition with the Rugova-led LDK was seen as a major healing of the animosities of the war and immediate post-war periods.[citation needed] It provoked a hostile reaction from the PDK. Haradinaj formed a close and productive working relationship with Ibrahim Rugova and other senior figures in the LDK.
[edit] Haradinaj at the Hague
Haradinaj served only 100 days as Prime Minister before being indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), at The Hague. The indictment alleges that Haradinaj was a member of a joint criminal enterprise between March and September 1998, the alleged purpose of which was to exert control over territory and target both Serb and Albanian civilians.[5] The charges are vigorously denied by Haradinaj. [6]
United States Senator Joe Biden commented on Haradinaj's indictment, "In the overall post-Yugoslav context, Mr. Haradinaj's willingness after his indictment to surrender voluntarily and go to The Hague is striking. It stands in glaring contrast to the behavior of the three most infamous individuals indicted by The Hague, all of whom are still fugitives, resisting arrest: former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, and former Croation General Ante Gotovina."[7]
Haradinaj's trial at The Hague is due to begin on 5 March, 2007 and his defence team is led by Ben Emmerson QC, a leading international human rights lawyer. His provisional release will expire at the end of February, when he will return to the Tribunal's detention centre in the Hague in anticipation of his trial.
When the ICTY indictment was issued in March 2005, Haradinaj chose to step down immediately from his position as Prime Minister. The following day he travelled voluntarily to The Hague where he remained for two months until he was granted provisional release pending trial. Haradinaj received much praise for his actions and words at that time, which were perceived by many, including the International Crisis Group (ICG)[8], US Senator Joe Biden [7] and the late British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook [9] as having prevented violence and civil unrest.
The then head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Søren Jessen-Petersen, described Haradinaj as a "friend" and as a man of "dynamic leadership, strong commitment and vision" whose presence would be greatly missed.[citation needed]
In March 2006, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY extended his provisional release further and granted Haradinaj the unprecedented right for an indictee to engage in public political activity.
On February 26th, 2007 Haradinaj was flown back to the Hague so that the trial could proceed. In the previous days he held meetings with Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu, Prime Minister Agim Çeku, the head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, Joachim Rücker, and various diplomatic offices. At a news conference he urged the public to remain calm and was steadfast in his belief that the trial would result in a full acquittal. [10] [11] [12]
The chief prosecutor at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, has remained steadfastly unimpressed by the international support for Haradinaj, continuing to make strongly negative statements about him. She told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that "according to the decision [to provisionally release him], he is a stability factor for Kosovo. I never understood this. For me he is a war criminal."[13]
Del Ponte, in the same interview, claimed that it was difficult to find witnesses who were willing to testify not just to the prosecutors, but also for the tribunal. "The difficulty in Kosovo was that noone helped us, neither the UN administration nor NATO."[14]
A recent BBC report found considerable support for Haradinaj among the Serb population. A Serb from north Kosovska Mitrovica said that "only two governments of Kosovo, the one of Bajram Rexhepi, and especially the one of Ramush Haradinaj have managed to do something for the Serb minority... The latter has managed to bring the Serb minority closer, and institutionalize the Serb language in Kosovo."[15]
The vagueness of the charges against Haradinaj personally, and the widely held suspicion he was indicted as part of a political deal with Belgrade combined with the overt international support for him, has had the effect of increasing rather than diminishing his political importance in Kosovo.[citation needed] Carla Del Ponte has expressed her exasperation saying, "I don’t understand why there cannot be peace in Kosovo without Ramush Haradinaj."[citation needed]
However, there reportedly is some considerable anxiety in Kosovo and in the international community at the prospect of going into the final delicate negotiation on Kosovo’s future status without Haradinaj.[citation needed] The outcome of his trial is expected to be watched with great interest from Washington to London and from Priština to Belgrade.
Kujtim Beriša, a Roma who was to be called as one of the main witnesses by the OTP in the case against Haradinaj, was killed in a car accident in Podgorica, Montenegro on February 18, 2007, when Aleksandar Ristović drove his car into Beriša and two other men. The Montenegrin daily Vijesti states that police 'confirmed that at the moment of accident Ristovic was drunk – driving at a very high speed'.[16]
[edit] Family and life
Haradinaj is married to the RTK news reporter Anita Haradinaj, they have two young children (a boy and a girl).
| Preceded by Bajram Rexhepi |
Prime Minister of Kosovo 2004–2005 |
Succeeded by Bajram Kosumi |
[edit] References
- ^ See also United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
- ^ ICTY, paragraph 49
- ^ IWPR
- ^ CDHRF Report
- ^ The Prosecutor of the Tribunal against Ramush Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj, Lahi Brahimaj. Revised second amended indictment. (PDF). International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (2006-10-11). Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b Biden's Senate website
- ^ ICG Report
- ^ The Guardian
- ^ "Kosovo ex-leader, headed for Hague, urges calm ", by Fatos Bytyci, Reuters, Pristina, February 23, 2007.
- ^ "War crimes indictee Haradinaj urges stability in Kosovo ", by Bekim Greicevci, Southeast European Times, Pristina, February 26, 2007.
- ^ "Haradinaj leaves for Hague ", B92, Pristina, February 26, 2007.
- ^ "Del Ponte - Milosevic hat mich fasziniert", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2006-07-28. Retrieved on 2007-02-20. (in German) “In der Entscheidung heißt es, er sei ein Sicherheitsfaktor für das Kosovo. Ich habe das nie verstanden. Für mich ist er ein Kriegsverbrecher.”
- ^ "Del Ponte - Milosevic hat mich fasziniert", Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 2006-07-28. Retrieved on 2007-02-20. (in German) “Gerade im Kosovo sei es schwer, Zeugen zu finden, die nicht nur vor den Anklägern, sondern auch vor dem Tribunal aussagen wollten. 'Die Schwierigkeit im Kosovo war, daß uns niemand geholfen hat, nicht die UN-Verwaltung und nicht die Nato'.”
- ^ "Qëndrime të ndryshme për qeverisjen ", BBC Albanian.com, September 6, 2006.
- ^ "Ristović u spužu ", Vijesti, unknown date.
