Ramush Haradinaj

Ramush Haradinaj
4th Prime Minister of Kosovo
In office 3 December 2004 – March 2005
Preceded by	Bajram Rexhepi
Succeeded by	Bajram Kosumi
Personal details
Born	3 July 1968(1968-07-03) Glodjane, Yugoslavia
Political party	AAK

Supporting Ramush

Ramush Haradinaj (born 3 July 1968) 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.

Early life

Haradinaj was born on 3 July 1968 in the village of Glođane, near Dečani, 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.

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 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]}

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 [2].

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 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.^{[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 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.

Trial for war crimes at ICTY

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 (ICTY), 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,

"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 Mladić, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, and former Croatian General Ante Gotovina."

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

"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."

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]}

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, 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.

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 Pristina, 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.

Family and life

Ramush Haradinaj is married to the RTK 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 Serbian 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 [3]. 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 [4].

His father, mother and younger remaining siblings still reside in the family home in the community of Glodjane.

Preceded by Bajram Rexhepi

Prime Minister of Kosovo 2004–2005

Succeeded by Bajram Kosumi

Notes

a.	^ The Albanian spelling of the name is Ramush Haradinaj; the Serbo-Croat spelling is Ramuš Haradinaj (Рамуш Харадинај).
b.	^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Serbia and the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo. The latter declared independence on 17 February 2008, while Serbia claims it as part of its own sovereign territory. Its independence is recognised by 86 UN member states.