Kosovo leader flies to war crimes trial

The Hague: A day after resigning as Kosovo's prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj arrived at the UN tribunal in The Hague yesterday to face war crimes charges.

About 200 fellow ethnic Albanians gathered at the airport in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, to wave off Mr Haradinaj as he boarded a German airforce plane for the Netherlands.

The former regional leader of the KLA, ethnic Albanian rebels who fought for independence from Serbia in a 1998-9 conflict, flew to The Hague with at least one old ally, Lahi Brahimaj.

Local media reports said a third former rebel, Idriz Balaj, had also been indicted.

Officials at The Hague declined to give details of the charges against the men, though Serbs have accused them of authorising the killing of Serbs and Roma by KLA members.

Mr Haradinaj, who rose from being a nightclub bouncer in Switzerland to become the prime minister of UN-administered Kosovo late last year, professed his innocence. "Today I have been called upon to make a sacrifice, something I never believed would happen," he said in a statement. "This means also co-operation with international justice, however unjust it is."

Insisting that he had always conducted himself and his troops according to international law, Mr Haradinaj declared: "I have behaved like an honourable man."

The decision of Mr Haradinaj (36) to surrender was welcomed warmly by the West and cautiously by Belgrade, which is accused of harbouring several Serb war crimes suspects.

"His actions demonstrate his deep concern for the future of Kosovo and its people," said Richard Boucher, a spokesman for the US State Department, adding that it could stand Kosovo in good stead for talks on its final status that are due this year.

"In order to receive a positive assessment from the comprehensive review later this year and to begin a process to determine its future status, Kosovo must preserve peace and continue to work to implement the standards," Mr Boucher said.

The region was peaceful after Mr Haradinaj's surrender, which saw 1,000 extra Nato peacekeepers drafted in to help quell any unrest.

"We fully expect the current environment to remain calm and stable," said Brig Gen William H Wade, who leads the 1,700-strong US contingent in Kosovo.

"Violence will not be tolerated and will set back the process toward settling Kosovo's future."

The only protest was a peaceful demonstration by students, calming fears of a repeat of riots that shattered the province's tenuous peace last March, and killed 19 people.

Nebojsa Jovic, of the Serb National Council in Kosovo, called the charges against Mr Haradinaj "a great encouragement for Serb people in Kosovo.

"It's a message to Albanian extremists that there is no impunity for them."