22 October 2003 Afternoon Edition

Kosovo News

· Ex-rebel leader from Kosovo detained in Slovenia on war crimes warrant (AFP)
· UPDATE 1-Slovenia police arrest Kosovo general (Reuters)
· ROUNDUP: Slovenia detains ex-Kosovo rebel leader on Serbian warrant (dpa)
· Former Kosovo rebel commander detained in Slovenia (AP)
· Head of Kosovo emergency force detained in Slovenia (AFP)
· Kosovo rebel ex-general held (BBC NEWS)
· Holkeri sets priorities (Beta)

Regional News

· Serbia and Montenegro's military condemns new war crimes indictments (AP)
· Serbian parliament resumes no-confidence debate (dpa)
· Serbian parliament resumes debate over ousting government (AP)
· U.N. prosecutors were investigating former Bosnian president Izetbegovic (AP)
· Belgrad empört über UN-Anklagen (FAZ)

Ex-rebel leader from Kosovo detained in Slovenia on war crimes warrant
LJUBLJANA, Oct 22 (AFP) - Slovenian police said Wednesday they had detained former Kosovo rebel leader Agim Ceku at Ljubljana's airport at the request of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"We have confirmed his identity," Slovenian police spokesman Zdenko Guzzi told AFP.
Police acted on an Interpol arrest warant issued at the request of The Hague tribunal, said Guzzi but gave no other details.
Ceku, the head of Kosovo's civil emergency force, had earlier told AFP by telephone to Pristina that he was being held by Slovenian authorities.
"I am being kept in a small room and guarded by two police officers," Ceku, reached by telephone from Pristina, told AFP.
Ceku said he had been detained at Ljubljana airport in the early afternoon but that he had not been told why he was being held.
The Slovenian police spokesman said Ceku would be handed over to Slovenian judicial officials.
Ceku heads the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), an emergency reaction force formed after the dismantling of the rebel ethnic-Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that fought a separatist war against Yugoslavia in 1998-99.
The 3,000 strong KPC is closely supervised by the UN mission that administers Kosovo as well as the NATO-led force, KFOR.
Its mission is to react to humanitarian catastrophes, although the organisation is allowed a limited number of weapons and Kosovo Albanians see it as the future army of the independence-seeking province.
Ceku, a former senior officer in the Croatian army was named military head of the KLA during the NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia that ended the war in Kosovo in 1999.

Slovenia police arrest Kosovo general

(Updates with Slovenia police and U.N. comment, details)

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Police in Slovenia arrested the wartime chief of staff of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) on Wednesday on an Interpol warrant, a source close to him told Reuters.

Slovenian police confirmed they stopped a man identifying himself as Agim Ceku, a lieutenant-general who now heads the KLA's civilian emergency successor force the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC).

``During the border control policemen noticed that there is an international -- Interpol -- warrant for his arrest,'' police spokesman Zdenko Guzzi said in Ljubljana.
``At present we are checking if it really is the identity of the person is the one stated in his documents. If that is so we will start with (the extradition) procedures to the proper authorities,'' he said. He did not say what the charges were.

But a source at the U.N. mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which governs the majority Albanian province after NATO's 1999 bombing campaign to halt Serb repression, said it seemed that Ceku was arrested on the basis of an ``old'' warrant.

``UNMIK is working to resolve this problem with the Slovenian authorities,'' the source said.

Ceku was a senior figure in the KLA, which battled Serbian forces in 1998-99 and later agreed to transform itself into the KPC. Kosovo Albanians are likely to react angrily to his arrest.

The Kosovo source said Ceku was arrested at Ljubljana airport while on his way home from a visit to Croatia.

Slovenia detains ex-Kosovo rebel leader on Serbian warrant

Pristina/Belgrade (dpa) - Acting on a warrant issued by Serbian police, Slovenian authorities Wednesday detained Agimn Ceku, commander of the Kosovo Protection Force and former leader of ethnic Albanian guerrillas in the province.

Ceku was being held at Ljubljana airport. ``I am being held, waiting for a decision of the Slovenian authorities,'' Ceku told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone. ``I was told that I am wanted by the Serbian government,'' he said.

Serbian authorities issued a international arrest warrant for Ceku based on ``genocide and terrorism against Serbian population in Kosovo'', Serbia Justice Minister Vladan Batic told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa.

``We will request his extradition'', Batic said, adding that Ceku's fait ``now lies in the hands of international community''.

He added: ``If everybody respects international regulations and standards, Ceku will be extradited to Serbia.''
Earlier this year Hungarian police detained Hashim Thaci, the former political leader of KLA and now a prominent Kosovo politician, also on a warrant issued by Belgrade.

Thaci was released after series of diplomatic interventions by the former United Nations administrator of Kosovo, Michael Steiner, United States diplomats and European Union.

Ceku commanded the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the war which culminated in the province in 1999. He also fought against the Serbs in Croatia in the first half of the 1990's.

Following the arrival of the United Nations administration and NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, Ceku took over the Kosovo Protection Corps, a disaster-relief organization which took most of the KLA guerrillas.

Serbian authorities have been naming Ceku as one of the most responsible for crimes committed against police and Serb civilians in Kosovo. He has been on a wanted list since the late 1990s, from the time of the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

However, legal sources in Belgrade said that possible extradition of Ceku would increase the risk of a new wave of violence and the breakdown of the fragile dialogue with the Kosovo leadership, which began only last week, more than four years since the end of the war in the province.

Former Kosovo rebel commander detained in Slovenia

LJUBLJANA, Slovenia (AP) _ Slovene authorities acting on an international arrest warrant detained a former Kosovo rebel leader Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. Agim Ceku, the head of the Kosovo Protection Corps, a civilian emergency organization created after the disbanding of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, was ``detained on an Interpol arrest warrant,'' said police spokesman Zdenko Guzzi.
Ceku was arrested by the border police at Ljubljana's airport as he was about to fly back to Kosovo, Guzzi said.

Guzzi refused to give details on the warrant, but Ceku told The Associated Press by telephone: ``I was told I am wanted by the Serb government, which has issued an arrest warrant.''

``They told me they can't release me without consulting the (Slovene) authorities,'' Ceku said.

Ceku was detained shortly before 1 p.m. (1100 GMT) while en route to Pristina, Kosovo's capital. He said his passport and other personal belongings were seized and he was being kept in airport facilities.

Izabella Karlowicz, a U.N. spokeswoman in Kosovo, confirmed the detention.
``We have been informed about this case and we are working to resolve it,'' she told AP.
In 1999, Ceku headed the Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel group that battled Serb forces in the province's war. The corps he heads now numbers 3,000 and mainly consists of former rebel fighters.

Last year, Serbia's authorities requested U.N. authorities to arrest three senior ethnic Albanian rebel leaders, including Ceku, to face trial for crimes allegedly committed during Kosovo's 1998-99 war.

Last December, Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic accused chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte of failing to indict Ceku and two other rebel leaders with war crimes.

Kosovo has been administered by United Nations and NATO since a 78-day alliance air war halted Serb forces' crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.
Earlier this year, another former Kosovo rebel commander, Fatmir Limaj, was arrested in Slovenia and extradited to the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which indicted him for atrocities committed in Kosovo. (

Head of Kosovo emergency force detained in Slovenia

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, Oct 22 (AFP) - The ethnic-Albanian head of Kosovo's civil emergency force, Agim Ceku, said Wednesday he was being detained by Slovenian authorities.

"I am being kept in a small room and guarded by two police officers," Ceku, reached by telephone from Pristina, told AFP.

Ceku said he had been stopped at Ljubljana airport around 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) but no explanation was given for his detention.

Ceku heads the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), an emergency reaction force formed after the dismantling of the rebel ethnic-Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that fought a separatist war against Yugoslavia in 1998-99.

The 3,000 strong KPC is closely supervised by the UN mission that administers Kosovo as well as the NATO-led peacekeeping force, KFOR.

Its mission is to react to humanitarian catastrophes, although the organisation is allowed a limited number of weapons and the majority ethnic-Albanians see it as the future army of an independent Kosovo.

Ceku, a former senior officer in the Croatian army, was named military head of the KLA during NATO's 78-day air-war against Yugoslavia that ended the war in Kosovo in 1999.

"We do have information about the detention and we are trying to resolve it," UN mission spokesman Neeraj Singh told AFP in Pristina.

Singh said the Slovenian police could be acting on an arrest warrant issued by Serbian police, although he could not confirm it.

Slovenian authorities last year arrested former rebel commander Fatmir Limaj after an indictment for war crimes committed in Kosovo was made public by the UN tribunal at The Hague.

Limaj was one of the first four ethnic Albanians to have been indicted for war crimes.
Authorities in Belgrade have repeatedly called for Ceku to be indicted also.

Kosovo rebel ex-general held

Police in Slovenia have detained the former commander of Albanian rebels in Kosovo, Agim Ceku, on an Interpol warrant.

BBC NEWS
Lieutenant General Ceku now heads the civilian emergency reaction force, the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), which was formed after the dismantling of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
He was held at Ljubljana airport on his way home from a visit to Croatia.
Mr Ceku told AFP news agency by mobile phone that he was being kept in a small room and guarded by two police officers.
Mr Ceku was a senior figure in the KLA, which battled Serbian forces in the late 1990s.

Holkeri sets priorities (Beta)

PRISTINA -- Wednesday - Kosovo governor Harri Holkeri said today that his three priorities for the province are establishment of the rule of law and a multiethnic society and economic development.

Speaking to The Voice of America, Holkeri said that he was continuing the work begun by his predecessor, Michael Steiner.

He expressed concern that the international community would forget about Kosovo under the weight of global crises.

Holkeri also said that the Kosovo institutions were not yet ready for the authority of the international protectorate to be devolved to them, adding that this was a political issue to be dealt with by the UN Security Council.

Serbia and Montenegro's military condemns new war crimes indictments

By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ The top army commander condemned recent war crimes indictments against two of its generals who commanded Serb forces during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo, saying the accusations were ``unfounded.''
The U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday indicted four army and police generals, including former army commander Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic and his top deputy, Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic, for alleged atrocities against ethnic Albanians during the war in Kosovo.
``The accusations that the army as an institution has committed war crimes are unfounded,'' Gen. Branko Krga, commander of the army of Serbia and Montenegro, told reporters in Belgrade.
Krga said he was ``shocked'' when he heard that Lazarevic, who remains in active duty, had been indicted and said the army is ``worried'' by the indictments.
He also stressed that the army has already taken measures to bring to justice its members suspected of war crimes, noting that the military co%rts this year ``have prosecuted and sentenced seven men responsible for war crimes, three of them recently.''
Last week a military court in Serbia convicted three former soldiers for war crimes in Kosovo and gave them prison sentences ranging from seven to nine years.
Lazarevic, who commanded the army troops in Kosovo in 1999, also condemned the indictments, saying he is innocent of war crimes and that he had only fought for his country.
``I did not wage a private war there,'' Lazarevic told the Beta news agency Tuesday.
The other two indicted by the U.N. court are Sreten Lukic, the current deputy interior minister, and Vlastimir Djordjevic, the former chief of police forces operating in Kosovo. Djordjevic reportedly fled to Russia in 2001.
Serbian officials have made clear they have no intention of arresting the four any time soon because the indictments came at a delicate time for the government as it faces a no-confidence vote which could lead to early elections.
Serbian nationalists are openly hostile toward the country's cooperation with the U.N. tribunal, which they accuse of harboring anti-Serb bias.
On Tuesday, Serbia's pro-Western prime minister, Zoran Zivkovic, also criticized the chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, for her ``lack of understanding'' of the current political situation in Serbia.
The indictment accuses the four generals of murder, persecution, deportation and inhumane treatment during former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in the southern province of Kosovo.
Up to 10,000 Kosovo Albanians were killed or are missing from the conflict, which ended in June 1999 after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign ousted government troops from the province. Kosovo has since been administered by the United Nations and NATO-led peacekeepers.
Under Western pressure, the pro-democracy government that ousted Milosevic in 2000 handed him over to the U.N. court in June 2001 to stand trial for war crimes allegedly committed during the Balkan wars.

Serbian parliament resumes no-confidence debate

Belgrade (dpa) - The Serbian parliament on Wednesday resumed a debate on no-confidence motions against the government and the chairwoman of the parliament, Natasa Micic.
The debate on the motion against Micic, who is also the acting Serbian president, was first on the agenda, to be followed by motions against Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic's cabinet.
The majority of the ruling Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) was steadily crumbling and last week it failed to muster enough votes to block the motions from the parliament's agenda.

Serbian parliament resumes debate over ousting government

By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) _ Serbia's parliament convened Wednesday for the third time in two weeks to debate holding a possible no-confidence vote against the government and the parliamentary speaker.

Rightist and nationalist opponents of Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic hope to unseat the Cabinet, alleging that government ministers are corrupt and unable to govern effectively.

Zoran Andjelkovic, a top ranking official and a parliamentary deputy of the Socialist Party of former President Slobodan Milosevic, told lawmakers Wednesday that the government had ``betrayed national interests.''

``The government has failed to fulfill its program,'' he said. ``Unemployment is high, the public health service is virtually nonexistent (and) with its restrictive monetary policies the government has brought the country's economy to a standstill.''

Zivkovic and other members of the governing coalition claim that the Milosevic allies and other nationalists are trying to undermine democratic and economic reforms with the vote.

Zivkovic has also expressed confidence that his government will survive.
``I feel the opposition does not have the strength to topple the government and that we have enough votes to keep this government in power,'' Zivkovic said Tuesday during a visit to Budapest, Hungary.

So far, the government has used delaying tactics to gain time to try to convince rebels from its own ranks not to vote against the Cabinet. It wasn't clear when the actual vote would take place as debate could last for days or weeks yet.

Also facing a possible confidence vote is Natasa Micic, the parliamentary speaker and acting president of Serbia.

The opposition accuses Micic _ the top official of the Civic Alliance, a coalition partner _ of showing partisanship in her duties as president.

The no-confidence motion was initiated by the conservative Democratic Party of Serbia, led by Vojislav Kostunica, a key figure in the 2000 ouster of Milosevic who later turned against his former allies. Milosevic is now at the trial before the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Kostunica was Milosevic's successor as president of Yugoslavia, which was replaced earlier this year with the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro.

The move to unseat the government comes as the most serious crisis in Serbia since the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March.

The ouster of the present government would inflict a major blow to U.S. and other Western efforts to democratize the Balkans after more than a decade of bloodshed. Most of the opposition is staunchly anti-U.S. and accuses the current government of betraying Serbian interests.

Regular parliamentary elections in Serbia are tentatively due to take place in the fall of 2004. But should the government be ousted, an early vote would likely take place in January or February.

U.N. prosecutors were investigating former Bosnian president Izetbegovic

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) _ Prosecutors at the Yugoslav tribunal were investigating former Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic for war crimes at the time of his death, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
No indictment was issued against the late leader, who died Sunday in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, at 78.
The announcement by the U.N. court was made as tens of thousands of Izetbegovic's supporters lined up to in Sarajevo to pay their respects to the former leader.
``At time of his death, he was a suspect and under investigation,'' said Florence Hartmann, spokeswoman for U.N. prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.
Inquiries will be halted now that the suspect has died, Hartmann told journalists in The Hague. No details were given about what crimes Izetbegovic was under investigation for.
Izetbegovic was a political moderate who led Bosnia's Muslims when they and Bosnian Croats voted for independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia in February 1992, sparking a civil war with Bosnian Serbs who rejected the move.
The resulting 3 1/2-year war left 260,000 people dead or missing and created 2.5 million refugees who fled or were evicted in ethnic purges.
Izetbegovic's Bosnian Muslims _ the weakest side in the conflict _ were joined by some of the country's Serbs and Croats who favored a multiethnic society. Despite the high death toll and intense political pressure, Izetbegovic rejected the idea of dividing Bosnia.

Belgrad empört über UN-Anklagen

FAZ

tens. BELGRAD, 21. Oktober. Mit Empörung hat die serbische Regierung auf die am Montag abend bekannt gewordene Anklage des Kriegsverbrechertribunals für das ehemalige Jugoslawien gegen vier führende Repräsentanten der Militär- und Polizeimaschinerie des Regimes von Slobodan Milosevic reagiert. Die Anklagebehörde des internationalen Tribunals beschuldigt den ehemaligen Generalstabschef der jugoslawischen Armee, Nebojsa Pavkovic, den derzeitigen stellvertretenden serbischen Innenminister Streten Lukic und zwei weitere pensionierte serbische Generäle, Verantwortung für 1999 im Kosovo begangene Kriegsverbrechen an der albanischen Bevölkerungsmehrheit zu tragen. Die Anklageschrift wurde vor einem Monat von der Haager Chefanklägerin Carla del Ponte unterzeichnet, jedoch geheimgehalten. Den Angeklagten wird vorgeworfen, zwischen Januar und Juni 1999 an einer "systematischen Kampagne" von Terror und Gewalt gegen die albanische Zivilbevölkerung des heute unter UN-Verwaltung stehenden Gebietes beteiligt gewesen zu sein. Ziel der von jugoslawischen und serbischen Truppen begangenen Verbrechen sei es gewesen, einen bedeutenden Teil der albanischen Bevölkerung aus dem Kosovo zu vertreiben, um die serbische Kontrolle über die Provinz für die Zukunft zu sichern.

Vor allem die Nennung von Lukics Namen in diesem Zusammenhang erregte in Belgrad Protest. Ministerpräsident Zivkovic bezeichnete die Vorwürfe gegen Lukic im serbischen Staatsfernsehen als einen "Schlag gegen den Reformprozeß in Serbien" und deutete an, daß mit einer baldigen Auslieferung nicht zu rechnen sei. Der serbische Innenminister Dusan Mihajlovic sagte, er werde nicht der Minister sein, der seinen Stellvertreter an das Tribunal ausliefere. Er nannte Lukic einen "Helden" und bezeichnete ihn als seine rechte Hand bei der Reform der serbischen Polizei und der Großoperation gegen die organisierte Kriminalität nach der Ermordung des damaligen Regierungschefs Zoran Djindjic im vergangenen März. Einen besonders glaubwürdigen Fürsprecher hat Lukic indes nicht in seinem Vorgesetzten, denn der war mit seiner Partei "Neue Demokratie" schon zu Herrschaftszeiten des im Oktober 2000 gestürzten Despoten Milosevic zeitweilig an der Regierung in Belgrad beteiligt. Weil die Abgeordneten von Mihajlovics Partei im Parlament bisher die wankende Mehrheit der Regierungskoalition DOS gestützt haben, galt der Innenminister jedoch als unantastbar. Auf ebenso schroffe Ablehnung dürfte auch der am Dienstag verbreitete ungewöhnliche Vorschlag von Pierre-Richard Prosper stoßen, des
amerikanischen Sonderbotschafters für die Verfolgung von Kriegsverbrechen.

Prosper hatte einen Tauschhandel vorgeschlagen und laut einem serbischen Fernsehbericht gesagt, sollte Belgrad den flüchtigen früheren Befehlshaber der bosnischen Serbenarmee, Ratko Mladic, an das Tribunal ausliefern, könne den vier am Montag angeklagten Serben in ihrer Heimat der Prozeß gemacht werden. Mladic ist seit 1995 vom Haager Tribunal wegen Völkermordes und Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit angeklagt. Carla del Ponte behauptet, er halte sich in Serbien auf, Belgrad bestreitet dies. Lukic war zum Zeitpunkt der serbischen Vertreibungspolitik im Kosovo 1999 im serbischen Innenministerium Polizeichef mit Zuständigkeit für die Provinz. Ende Januar 2001 beförderte ihn die neue Regierung zum stellvertretenden Innenminister. Schon damals bestätigte das Haager Tribunal, daß gegen ihn ermittelt werde, doch Djindjic stellte sich demonstrativ hinter Lukic. Die beiden anderen Angeklagten sind Vladimir Lazarevic, der noch bis zum August dieses Jahres dem Generalstab der Armee angehörte und während des Krieges Befehlshaber des Prishtina-Korps der jugoslawischen Armee war, sowie Vlastimir Djordjevic, Lukics Vorgänger als stellvertretender Innenminister. Pavkovic war im Juni des vergangenen Jahres vom damaligen jugoslawischen Präsidenten Kostunica, der den General lange gestützt hatte, entlassen worden. Während des Luftkriegs der Nato gegen das von Milosevic beherrschte Jugoslawien war Pavkovic Kommandeur der jugoslawischen Streitkräfte im Kosovo. Nach serbischen Presseberichten will Frau Del Ponte bis zum Ende des Jahres zahlreiche weitere Anklagen erheben, angeblich auch gegen Albaner aus dem Kosovo.