Kosovo Ex-Prime Minister Arrested on War Crimes
By DAN BILEFSKY <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/dan_bilefsky/index.html?inline=nyt-per> and MATTHEW BRUNWASSER Published: June 24, 2009 PRAGUE — The former prime minister of <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/serbia/kosovo/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> Kosovo, Agim Ceku, a former rebel commander wanted in Serbia on war crimes charges, has been arrested in Bulgaria, Bulgarian officials announced Wednesday. Skip to next paragraph Valdrin Xhemaj/European Pressphoto Agency Agim Ceku, the former Prime Minister of Kosovo, at the parliament in Pristina in 2006. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/06/24/world/24kosovo-190.jpg Readers' Comments Share your thoughts. · <http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/europe/25kosovo.html#postComment> Post a Comment » · <http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/europe/25kosovo.html> Read All Comments (12) » http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/europe/25kosovo.html The Bulgarian interior ministry said Mr. Ceku had been detained based on an Interpol arrest warrant initiated by Serbia as he crossed the border from Macedonia on Tuesday. Kamen Mihov, a Bulgarian prosecutor in charge of international legal issues, said that a court would decide by Friday whether to extend his detention by 40 days — during which time he could be extradited to Serbia — or to release him. Mr. Ceku has been accused by Serbia of committing war crimes during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, when he was a commander of the <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/k/kosovo_liberation_army/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel group that fought a guerrilla war aimed at undermining Serbia’s rule of Kosovo. The Serbian Justice Ministry said Mr. Ceku had been indicted in Serbia for “command responsibility” in relation to what it calls the illegal deaths of 669 Serbs and 18 other non-Albanians in 1999 — allegations he has strenuously denied. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. But Serbia, which regards Kosovo as its medieval heartland and is supported by Russia, has refused to recognize the country. Solomon Passy, the head of the Bulgarian parliament’s foreign relations committee who said he had invited Mr. Ceku to Bulgaria to discuss integrating Kosovo into international structures like the <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org> European Union and <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/north_atlantic_treaty_organization/index.html?inline=nyt-org> NATO, called the arrest “politically motivated.” “The decision of one parochial court does not represent the motivation of the international community,” he said. Mr. Ceku has not been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague, but he has been arrested on two previous occasions on the same warrant — the first time in October 2003, at Ljubljana Airport, and the second time at Budapest Airport, in February 2004. In both cases, he was released. He was also deported from Colombia in May 2009 on the basis of an Interpol warrant. Serbia insists that the extradition of Mr. Ceku is essential to achieve justice for atrocities against Serbs during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. But Balkan analysts said the arrest of Mr. Ceku, a prominent figure in Kosovo’s struggle for independence, was also part of an effort by Belgrade to appeal to domestic public sentiment. It is something of a difficult balancing act, however, since Serbia is also seeking closer ties with the European Union, a majority of whose member countries supported Kosovo’s independence in the face of fierce Serbian resistance. Mr. Ceku is a popular folk hero for many ethnic Albanians. If he were to be extradited to Serbia, analysts said such the move could create friction in Kosovo, where NATO peacekeepers maintain an uneasy peace between the majority ethnic Albanian population and a Serb minority. As prime minister of Kosovo, Mr. Ceku, a former soldier in the army of the former Yugoslavia and a former rebel general, sought to reach out to Serbs and addressed the Kosovo parliament in the Serbian language — a move for which he was criticized by many ethnic Albanians. In May 1999, at the height of the war, a group of Serbian paramilitaries and police arrived in his home village of Qyshk, in western Kosovo, found his family home, and shot his 69 year-old father, Hasan, before setting the body on fire and shooting the remaining men in the village, according to an account Ceku told to his aides. Dan Bilefsky reported from Prague, and Matthew Brunwasser from Sofia, Bulgaria. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/world/europe/25kosovo.html?_r=2&ref=global-home
