Ramush Haradinaj
Encyclopedia
Ramush Haradinaj is a former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) and former prime minister
of Kosovo. He leads the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo
(AAK) and is among former KLA officers charged of war crimes during the 1999 Kosovo War
by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY
) at The Hague but was acquitted of all charges on 3 April 2008. However, on 21 July 2010, the Appeals Chamber ordered a partial retrial.
, in the Yugoslav
province of Kosovo
(in present-day Kosovo
). He spent his youth in his native village with his parents and siblings, and finished High School in Đakovica. After graduating high school, he served in the Yugoslav Army
.
After the Kosovo War
he attended the University of Pristina where he graduated from the Faculty of Law. Haradinaj also has a Master's degree in business from the American University of Kosovo which is associated with Rochester Institute of Technology
(RIT).
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 spent eight years working as a construction worker and security guard In Switzerland, he joined the separatist National Movement of Kosovo, from which originated the KLA.
). 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.
In September 1998, some months later, the bodies of 39 people were found near Haradinaj's home village of Glodjane, some of them bearing evidence of having been tied and tortured. The victims were local people of both Albanian and Serbian ethnicity and they became the basis for public accusations of war crimes against Haradinaj and his group http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article422280.ece.
(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. He retired from the KPC on 11 April 2000, and announced that he was entering politics. He founded, with support from the former communist leader Mahmut Bakalli
, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo
(AAK), on 29 April 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
. 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.
Haradinaj is regarded as a national hero
by many Kosovo Albanians. Nonetheless he enjoyed limited electoral success up to and including the elections of 2004, being perceived as a soldier rather than a politician. 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. It provoked a hostile reaction from the PDK at the time. Haradinaj formed a close and productive working relationship with Ibrahim Rugova and other senior figures in the LDK.
In February 2009 he was asked by the Ugandan Rebel Group "Allied Democratic Forces" to mediate peace talks with the central government in Kampala.
), at The Hague
. The indictment alleges that Haradinaj, as a commander within the KLA, committed crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war between March and September 1998, the alleged purpose of which was to exert control over territory, targeting both Serb, Albanian and Romani civilians. He was acquitted on 3 April 2008, because of lack of convincing evidence.
United States Senator Joe Biden
commented on Haradinaj's indictment,
Haradinaj indicated in a statement at the time that he was willing to submit himself to the court and be scrutinised for his actions during or after the war, confident all actions were both legal and justified.
Haradinaj's trial at The Hague began on 5 March 2007 and his defence team was led by Ben Emmerson QC, a leading international human rights lawyer. Emmerson had supporting counsel in Rodney Dixon, also of Matrix chambers of London. The legal defence team as a whole was coordinated by Irish political consultant and financier Michael O'Reilly.
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), US Senator Joe Biden
and the late British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook
as having prevented violence and civil unrest.
The then head of the United Nations Interim Administration 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.
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. Such activity was, however, subject to the approval of UNMIK.
On 26 February 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.
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."
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 no one helped us, neither the UN administration nor NATO."
A recent BBC
report found considerable support for Haradinaj among the Serb population. A Serb from north Kosovska Mitrovica
said that
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. Carla Del Ponte has expressed her exasperation saying, "I don’t understand why there cannot be peace in Kosovo without Ramush Haradinaj."
On 20 July 2007, Ramush Haradinaj's application for provisional release during the summer court recess was denied. He was granted a second exceptional provisional release over the Christmas court recess.
The trial chamber rendered its decision on 3 April 2008; not guilty. Defenders of Haradinaj, Balaj and Brahimaj have not taken a single witness of the defense to the stand considering that unnecessary. The prosecution was unable to bring to the courtroom three planned witnesses. One of them was committed to a mental health institution at the time he was called to testify. Another, Shefqet Kabashi, refused to testify citing the OTP's failure to live up to the conditions set for his testimony.
The Judges pointed out that many witnesses felt intimidated:
Kujtim Berisha, a Roma who was also to be called as a witness by the OTP in the case against Haradinaj, was killed in a car accident in Podgorica
, Montenegro
on 18 February 2007, when 67-year old Montenegrin Serb Aleksandar Ristović drove his car into Berisha and two other men. The Montenegrin daily Vijesti
states that police 'confirmed that at the moment of accident Ristović was drunk – driving at a very high speed'.
Serbian media have written that as many as ten people who were supposed to witness in the trial against Haradinaj have died but ICTY's representative in Serbia, Nerma Jelačić, said allegations about killing of witnesses were untrue.
Geoffrey Nice, the ICTY prosecutor in the Milošević case, wrote in a column in Koha Ditore
that at least three experienced prosecution lawyers advised Del Ponte against indicting Ramush Haradinaj since it could not be proved he was guilty.
On 25 April 2008 the ICTY officially opened indictments against Astrit Haraqija and his councilor Bajrush Morina for contempt of court in Haradinaj's case. According to the indictment, Astrit Haracija who back then was Kosovo Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport and a member of “Defence committee for Ramush Haradinaj”, has paid for the trip of Morina, then's editor of the Pristina daily Bota Sot
, to the country where witness under protection P.W. resided and attempted to intimidate him not to witness at the trial. Harqija was acquitted on appeal.
On 1 May 2008 the ICTY prosecutors under Serge Brammertz
officially lodged an appeal to Haradinaj's verdict, before the 3 May deadline expired. The prosecutors also lodged appeals against the acquitting verdict of Haradinaj's cooperatives Idriz Balaj and Lahi Bahrimaj, the latter of whom was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
In 2009, The Trial
, a feature-length documentary on Haradinaj's trial at the ICTY was produced and released. The film premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2009.
, in 2000) entitled A Narrative about War and Freedom. ( 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 disbanding of the insurgent Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) and the beginnings of parallel political institutions within the region.
news reporter Anita Haradinaj, they have two young children (a boy and a girl). Anita Haradinaj is a senior announcer of Kosovo's most watched and respected newscast.
Haradinaj has five brothers. Two of them, Luan and Shkelzën, were killed as officers of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the fights with the Serbia
n security forces. His brother Daut Haradinaj served a five-year sentence in Kosovo for unlawful killings of fellow Albanians during the Kosovo War of 1999. His brother Enver was killed in a drive-by shootout in Kosovo in April 2005 http://www.b92.net/eng/news/comments.php?nav_id=31799. The youngest brother Frashër was still a student as of 2007 and worked in the service of the now former Provisional Institutions of Self-Government.
Haradinaj's uncle Lahi Brahimaj, who stood accused together with Haradinaj for war crimes before the ICTY, was found guilty of torture and was sentenced for a prison term by the same court http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3678209.ece.
His father, mother and younger remaining siblings still reside in the family home in the community of Glodjane.
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
(KLA) and former prime minister
Prime Minister of Kosovo
The Prime Minister of Kosovo is Head of Government of the disputed Republic of Kosovo .The Prime Minister and the Government of Kosovo, which he or she heads, are responsible for their actions to the Assembly of Kosovo, of which they must all be members...
of Kosovo. He leads the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo
Alliance for the Future of Kosovo
The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo is a political party in Kosovo. It was formed on 29 April 2001.- Leadership :The current president of the party is Ramush Haradinaj. In December 2004 the parliament elected him as Prime Minister of Kosovo and he formed a coalition government with the largest...
(AAK) and is among former KLA officers charged of war crimes during the 1999 Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
) at The Hague but was acquitted of all charges on 3 April 2008. However, on 21 July 2010, the Appeals Chamber ordered a partial retrial.
Early life
Haradinaj was born on 3 July 1968 in the village of Glođane, near DečaniDecani
Decani is the side of a church choir occupied by the Dean. In English churches this is typically the choir stalls on the south side of the chancel, although there are some notable exceptions, such as Durham Cathedral and Southwell Minster...
, in the Yugoslav
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
province of Kosovo
Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (1946-1974)
The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija was an autonomous province of Serbia, within the larger federation of Yugoslavia from 1963 to 1974, when it was replaced by the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo...
(in present-day Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
). He spent his youth in his native village with his parents and siblings, and finished High School in Đakovica. After graduating high school, he served in the Yugoslav Army
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army , also referred to as the Yugoslav National Army , was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.-Origins:The origins of the JNA can...
.
After the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
he attended the University of Pristina where he graduated from the Faculty of Law. Haradinaj also has a Master's degree in business from the American University of Kosovo which is associated with Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
(RIT).
After the demonstrations of Kosovo Albanians
Albanians in Kosovo
Albanians are the largest ethnic group in Kosovo . According to the 1991 Serbian census, boycotted by Albanians, there were 1,596,072 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo or 81.6% of population...
in 1989 and the increased suppression of the local ethnic Albanian population that followed, Haradinaj emigrated to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
where he spent eight years working as a construction worker and security guard In Switzerland, he joined the separatist National Movement of Kosovo, from which originated the KLA.
War against Yugoslavia
After Haradinaj's return to Kosovo in February 1998, the conflict in Kosovo erupted. According to the indictment against Fatmir Limaj, Haradin Bala and Isak Musliu at the ICTY, between 28 February and 5 March, government forces attacked the KLA-held villages of Likošane, Cirez, and Prekaze. On March 24, they surrounded the village of Glodjane and commenced their operation. The Haradinajs, 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 MetohijaMetohija
Metohija , is a large basin and the name of the region covering the southwestern part of Kosovo.It encompasses three of the seven districts of Kosovo, namely the historical :* District of Peć * District of Đakovica * District of Prizren...
). 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.
In September 1998, some months later, the bodies of 39 people were found near Haradinaj's home village of Glodjane, some of them bearing evidence of having been tied and tortured. The victims were local people of both Albanian and Serbian ethnicity and they became the basis for public accusations of war crimes against Haradinaj and his group http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article422280.ece.
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 CorpsKosovo Protection Corps
The Kosovo Protection Corps was a civilian emergency services organisation in Kosovo active from 1999 to 2009.The KPC was created on September 21, 1999 through the promulgation of UNMIK Regulation 1999/8 and the agreement of a "Statement of Principles" on the KPC's permitted role in Kosovo...
(KPC). In this new force, Haradinaj was a deputy commander, under Agim Çeku
Agim Çeku
Agim Çeku is the current Minister of Security Forces for the Republic of Kosovo. He is also the former Prime Minister of Kosovo and a chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army . He was born in the village of Ćuška near Peć, in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo .Çeku is an ethnic Albanian...
, and is considered to have been a central figure in ensuring the successful transition into a civilian controlled force. He retired from the KPC on 11 April 2000, and announced that he was entering politics. He founded, with support from the former communist leader Mahmut Bakalli
Mahmut Bakalli
Mahmut Bakalli was a Kosovar Albanian politician.Bakalli's political career started in the youth organization of the League of Communists of Kosovo, eventually becoming its leader in 1961. In 1967, he became head of the party's Prishtina chapter...
, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo
Alliance for the Future of Kosovo
The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo is a political party in Kosovo. It was formed on 29 April 2001.- Leadership :The current president of the party is Ramush Haradinaj. In December 2004 the parliament elected him as Prime Minister of Kosovo and he formed a coalition government with the largest...
(AAK), on 29 April 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
Hashim Thaci
Hashim Thaçi is the Prime Minister of Republic of Kosovo, the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo , and former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army .-Early life and education:...
. Thaçi had been the political leader of the KLA and by 2000 was the leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo
Democratic Party of Kosovo
The Democratic Party of Kosovo is the largest political party in Kosovo . It is a social democratic party and the main leftist party in Kosovo....
(PDK), the main opposition to the Ibrahim Rugova
Ibrahim Rugova
Ibrahim Rugova was an Albanian politician who was the first President of Kosovo and of its leading political party, the Democratic League of Kosovo ....
-led Democratic League of Kosovo
Democratic League of Kosovo
The Democratic League of Kosovo is the second largest political party in Kosovo. It is a conservative and liberal conservative party; the main right-wing party in 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.
Haradinaj is regarded as a national hero
Folk hero
A folk hero is a type of hero, real, fictional, or mythological. The single salient characteristic which makes a character a folk hero is the imprinting of the name, personality and deeds of the character in the popular consciousness. This presence in the popular consciousness is evidenced by...
by many Kosovo Albanians. Nonetheless he enjoyed limited electoral success up to and including the elections of 2004, being perceived as a soldier rather than a politician. Following the elections of October 2004, however, he entered into coalition talks with the LDK, led by the then President of Kosovo
President of Kosovo
The President of the Republic of Kosovo is Head of State of the disputed Republic of Kosovo. The President of Kosovo is elected by the Assembly of Kosovo. The first post-war president, who served until his death in January 2006, was Ibrahim Rugova. His successor was Fatmir Sejdiu. When Sejdiu...
, the late Dr. Ibrahim Rugova. The outcome was a government with Haradinaj as Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Kosovo
The Prime Minister of Kosovo is Head of Government of the disputed Republic of Kosovo .The Prime Minister and the Government of Kosovo, which he or she heads, are responsible for their actions to the Assembly of Kosovo, of which they must all be members...
. In the Kosovo Assembly
Assembly of Kosovo
The Assembly of Kosovo was originally established by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo in 2001 to provide 'provisional, democratic self-government'....
, 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. It provoked a hostile reaction from the PDK at the time. Haradinaj formed a close and productive working relationship with Ibrahim Rugova and other senior figures in the LDK.
In February 2009 he was asked by the Ugandan Rebel Group "Allied Democratic Forces" to mediate peace talks with the central government in Kampala.
First trial
Haradinaj served only 100 days as Prime Minister before being indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTYInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
), at The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. The indictment alleges that Haradinaj, as a commander within the KLA, committed crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war between March and September 1998, the alleged purpose of which was to exert control over territory, targeting both Serb, Albanian and Romani civilians. He was acquitted on 3 April 2008, because of lack of convincing evidence.
United States Senator Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
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 MladićRatko MladićRatko Mladić is an accused war criminal and a former Bosnian Serb military leader. On May 31, 2011, Mladić was extradited to The Hague, where he was processed at the detention center that holds suspects for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia...
, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan KaradžićRadovan KaradžicRadovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. He is detained in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen, accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre.Educated as a...
, and former Croatian General Ante GotovinaAnte GotovinaAnte Gotovina is a former Senior Corporal of the French Foreign Legion and former Lieutenant General of the Croatian Army who served in the Croatian War for Independence...
."
Haradinaj indicated in a statement at the time that he was willing to submit himself to the court and be scrutinised for his actions during or after the war, confident all actions were both legal and justified.
Haradinaj's trial at The Hague began on 5 March 2007 and his defence team was led by Ben Emmerson QC, a leading international human rights lawyer. Emmerson had supporting counsel in Rodney Dixon, also of Matrix chambers of London. The legal defence team as a whole was coordinated by Irish political consultant and financier Michael O'Reilly.
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
International Crisis Group
The International Crisis Group is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization whose mission is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts around the world through field-based analyses and high-level advocacy.-History:...
(ICG), US Senator Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
and the late British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook
Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....
as having prevented violence and civil unrest.
The then head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK
United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo or UNMIK is the interim civilian administration in Kosovo, under the authority of the United Nations. The mission was established on 10 June 1999 by Security Council Resolution 1244...
), Søren Jessen-Petersen
Søren Jessen-Petersen
Søren Jessen-Petersen is an international civil servant from Denmark. He was named Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Kosovo and head of UNMIK on 16 June 2004 and held the position until the end of June 2006...
, described Haradinaj as a "friend" and as a man of "dynamic leadership, strong commitment and vision" whose presence would be greatly missed.
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. Such activity was, however, subject to the approval of UNMIK.
On 26 February 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
Fatmir Sejdiu
Fatmir Sejdiu is a politician from Kosovo. He was the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo and was the first President of the Republic of Kosovo.-Early life and education:...
, Prime Minister Agim Çeku
Agim Çeku
Agim Çeku is the current Minister of Security Forces for the Republic of Kosovo. He is also the former Prime Minister of Kosovo and a chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army . He was born in the village of Ćuška near Peć, in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo .Çeku is an ethnic Albanian...
, the head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, Joachim Rücker
Joachim Rücker
Joachim Rücker is a German international civil servant, since November 2008 serving as the German ambassador to Sweden. He was named Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Kosovo and head of UNMIK from 1 September 2006 to 20 June 2008...
, 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.
The chief prosecutor at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte
Carla Del Ponte is a former Chief Prosecutor of two United Nations international criminal law tribunals. A former Swiss attorney general, she was appointed prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in August...
, has remained steadfastly unimpressed by the international support for Haradinaj, continuing to make strongly negative statements about him. She told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , short F.A.Z., also known as the FAZ, is a national German newspaper, founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt am Main. The Sunday edition is the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung .F.A.Z...
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."
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 no one helped us, neither the UN administration nor NATO."
A recent BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
report found considerable support for Haradinaj among the Serb population. A Serb from north Kosovska Mitrovica
Kosovska Mitrovica
Kosovska Mitrovica , is a city and municipality in northern Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous district....
said that
- "only two governments of Kosovo, the one of Bajram RexhepiBajram RexhepiBajram Rexhepi is a politician. He is currently Interior Minister of the Republic of Kosovo and a member of the Kosovo Assembly. He was also the first elected post-war Prime Minister of Kosovo...
, 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."
The vagueness of the charges against Haradinaj personally, and the widely held suspicion he was indicted as part of a political deal with Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
combined with the overt international support for him, has had the effect of increasing rather than diminishing his political importance in Kosovo. Carla Del Ponte has expressed her exasperation saying, "I don’t understand why there cannot be peace in Kosovo without Ramush Haradinaj."
On 20 July 2007, Ramush Haradinaj's application for provisional release during the summer court recess was denied. He was granted a second exceptional provisional release over the Christmas court recess.
The trial chamber rendered its decision on 3 April 2008; not guilty. Defenders of Haradinaj, Balaj and Brahimaj have not taken a single witness of the defense to the stand considering that unnecessary. The prosecution was unable to bring to the courtroom three planned witnesses. One of them was committed to a mental health institution at the time he was called to testify. Another, Shefqet Kabashi, refused to testify citing the OTP's failure to live up to the conditions set for his testimony.
The Judges pointed out that many witnesses felt intimidated:
- "the Chamber encountered significant difficulties in securing the testimony of a large number of these witnesses. Many cited fear as a prominent reason for not wishing to appear before the Chamber to give evidence. In this regard, the Chamber gained a strong impression that the trial was being held in an atmosphere where witnesses felt unsafe, due to a number of factors set out in the Judgement. "
Kujtim Berisha, a Roma who was also to be called as a witness by the OTP in the case against Haradinaj, was killed in a car accident in Podgorica
Podgorica
Podgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
, Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
on 18 February 2007, when 67-year old Montenegrin Serb Aleksandar Ristović drove his car into Berisha and two other men. The Montenegrin daily Vijesti
Vijesti
Vijesti is a Montenegrin daily newspaper.The paper is published and managed by an entity called Daily Press d.o.o. - a limited liability company based in Podgorica...
states that police 'confirmed that at the moment of accident Ristović was drunk – driving at a very high speed'.
Serbian media have written that as many as ten people who were supposed to witness in the trial against Haradinaj have died but ICTY's representative in Serbia, Nerma Jelačić, said allegations about killing of witnesses were untrue.
Geoffrey Nice, the ICTY prosecutor in the Milošević case, wrote in a column in Koha Ditore
Koha Ditore
Koha Ditore is the leading daily newspaper from Kosovo. It is published by Koha Group and was founded and owned by politician Veton Surroi. His sister Flaka Surroi is now the publisher, following Veton Surroi's launch of his political career within the ORA reformist party...
that at least three experienced prosecution lawyers advised Del Ponte against indicting Ramush Haradinaj since it could not be proved he was guilty.
On 25 April 2008 the ICTY officially opened indictments against Astrit Haraqija and his councilor Bajrush Morina for contempt of court in Haradinaj's case. According to the indictment, Astrit Haracija who back then was Kosovo Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport and a member of “Defence committee for Ramush Haradinaj”, has paid for the trip of Morina, then's editor of the Pristina daily Bota Sot
Bota Sot
Bota Sot is a daily newspapers from Kosovo, originally published by Kosovo diaspora in Switzerland. It is published by Media Print and is owned by Xhevdet Mazrekaj, a diaspora businessman. The newspaper was published for the first time in 1995 - in the beginning only abroad...
, to the country where witness under protection P.W. resided and attempted to intimidate him not to witness at the trial. Harqija was acquitted on appeal.
On 1 May 2008 the ICTY prosecutors under Serge Brammertz
Serge Brammertz
Serge Brammertz is a Belgian jurist, and the prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.Brammertz was deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court from 2002 to 2007...
officially lodged an appeal to Haradinaj's verdict, before the 3 May deadline expired. The prosecutors also lodged appeals against the acquitting verdict of Haradinaj's cooperatives Idriz Balaj and Lahi Bahrimaj, the latter of whom was sentenced to 6 years in prison.
In 2009, The Trial
The Trial (2009 film)
The Trial is a 2009 documentary film made by Headland Pictures following the trial for war crimes of the former Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj....
, a feature-length documentary on Haradinaj's trial at the ICTY was produced and released. The film premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2009.
Second trial
After an appeal, the ICTY had decided to partially repeat the process against Haradinaj, issuing on 19 June 2010 a warrant for arrest. On 21 July 2010 Haradinaj was arrested again and transferred to the Kingdom of the Netherlands for a repeat trial: according to Hague tribunal president Patrick Robinson the original trial had been marred by witness intimidation.Some international lawyers have expressed concern over the order of the retrial.Biography
His early life and war years are described in a book-length dialogue between Haradinaj and author Bardh Hamzaj published by Zëri Biblioteka Publicistike in PristinaPristina
Pristina, also spelled Prishtina and Priština is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous municipality and district....
, in 2000) entitled A Narrative about War and Freedom. ( 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 disbanding of the insurgent Kosovo Liberation Army
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA was a Kosovar Albanian paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s....
(KLA) and the beginnings of parallel political institutions within the region.
Family and life
Ramush Haradinaj is married to the RTKRadio Television of Kosovo
Radio Television of Kosovo is the public service broadcaster in Kosovo.It consists of the television service, broadcast on the terrestrial transmitter network and digital satellite , and two radio stations, Radio Kosovo and Radio Blue Sky...
news reporter Anita Haradinaj, they have two young children (a boy and a girl). Anita Haradinaj is a senior announcer of Kosovo's most watched and respected newscast.
Haradinaj has five brothers. Two of them, Luan and Shkelzën, were killed as officers of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the fights with the Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n security forces. His brother Daut Haradinaj served a five-year sentence in Kosovo for unlawful killings of fellow Albanians during the Kosovo War of 1999. His brother Enver was killed in a drive-by shootout in Kosovo in April 2005 http://www.b92.net/eng/news/comments.php?nav_id=31799. The youngest brother Frashër was still a student as of 2007 and worked in the service of the now former Provisional Institutions of Self-Government.
Haradinaj's uncle Lahi Brahimaj, who stood accused together with Haradinaj for war crimes before the ICTY, was found guilty of torture and was sentenced for a prison term by the same court http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3678209.ece.
His father, mother and younger remaining siblings still reside in the family home in the community of Glodjane.