KOSOVO: Crowds greet former KLA commander Haradinaj acquitted of war crimes charges

Record ID: 783940

  • Title: KOSOVO: Crowds greet former KLA commander Haradinaj acquitted of war crimes charges
  • Date: 1st April 2008
  • Summary: (BN11)PRISTINA, KOSOVO (APRIL 4, 2008) (REUTERS) FORMER PRIME MINISTER AND FORMER REGIONAL COMMANDER OF THE KOSOVO LIBERATION ARMY (KLA) RAMUSH HARADINAJ WALKING OUT FROM PLANE WAVING TO CROWD PEOPLE WAITING BY PLANE HARADINAJ SHAKING HANDS WITH KOSOVO PROTECTION CORPS OFFICERS VARIOUS OF HARADINAJ SHAKING HANDS WITH PEOPLE/ PEOPLE CHEERING PEOPLE GREETING HARADINAJ (SOUNDBITE) (Albanian) RAMUSH HARADINAJ, FORMER KOSOVO PRIME MINISTER AND A FORMER REGIONAL COMMANDER OF THE KOSOVO LIBERATION ARMY (KLA), SAYING: "It was a triumph of justice and our war was fair." RAMUSH HARADINAJ'S CAR LEAVING CROWD WAVING WITH ALBANIAN FLAGS HARADINAJ'S MOTORCADE ARRIVING AT HIS HOUSE IN PRISTINA POSTER WITH HARADINAJ'S IMAGE ON FRONT DOOR OF HIS HOUSE VARIOUS OF HARADINAJ SHAKING HANDS WITH PEOPLE HARADINAJ ENTERING HOME
  • Embargoed: 16th April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA13OQRFUB16W1OB02N3QCKQZW7
  • Story Text: Former KLA commander Ramush Haradinaj is welcomed by relatives and supporters as he arrives in Pristina after being acquitted by a U.N. war crimes tribunal.
    Thousands of flag-waving Kosovo Albanians turned out on Friday (April 4) to welcome home ex-prime minister Ramush Haradinaj following his acquittal at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
    The former guerrilla commander, who fought Serb forces in 1998-99, returned to Kosovo six weeks after the territory declared independence from Serbia and won recognition from major Western powers. The crowd chanted his name and threw flowers.

    "I can say that it was a triumph of justice, but we still have scars from the past and present as one of my associates was sentenced,"
    the 39-year-old told reporters at his house in Pristina.

    "However, it is a good feeling when you know that justice proved something that the nation and I were very well aware of all the time."
    Haradinaj, the most senior Kosovo Albanian to be tried by the U.N.
    tribunal, was cleared on Thursday (April 3) of persecuting Serbs during the two-year guerrilla war for independence.
    The ruling compounded Serb anger over Kosovo's secession and revived accusations from Belgrade that the court is anti-Serb.
    Analysts said it played into the hands of nationalists ahead of Serbia's cliff-hanger parliamentary election on May 11, and might make it harder for any Serb government to justify the handover of four remaining ethnic Serb war crimes fugitives.
    Nationalist Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the ruling made a "mockery of justice".
    He called on the European Union to review whether Serbia's further integration with the bloc should depend on its cooperation with the tribunal, as has been the case until now.
    Haradinaj, a former nightclub bouncer, was prime minister for a few months before he resigned in 2005 after being indicted. He is expected to return to politics as head of the small party Alliance for the Future of Kosovo.
    Considered a hero by many Kosovo Albanians, Haradinaj was acquitted of torture, murder, rape and deportation after the Kosovo Liberation Army launched a guerrilla war to end a decade of Serb repression under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
    Serb forces expelled almost one million Albanians.
    Judges said the prosecution had failed to prove a deliberate campaign to kill and expel Serb civilians from Kosovo. They also noted witness intimidation throughout the trial.
    Haradinaj's uncle, Lahi Brahimaj, a senior KLA figure, was cleared of most charges but sentenced to six years jail for personally taking part in the cruel treatment of a detainee at a camp, and ordering the mistreatment of a perceived collaborator.
    A third accused, Idriz Balaj, the commander of the KLA's "Black Eagles" special unit, was also cleared of all charges of torture, murder, rape and deportation.
    ENDS.
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