By Felix Quigley
On 4international we intend to follow this man. His name is Ramush Haradinaj, everybody knows he is a killer and has murdered in cold blood many ordinary Serb peasants and simple country folk, we on 4international have already proved that and have exposed the alliance of the US and EU Imperialists with this killer of Serbs, an alliance which goes to the very tops of the US Elite, to Bush, Lieberman, Cheney, Holbrooke and McCain. In fact, the history of this man, and the alliance in practice formed with Haradinaj is a huge warning to the Jews of Israel not to trust – in any way – US Imperialism.
This report on the return of Haradinaj to Kosovo, a return in triumph thanks to his employers in the US Imperialist state, we take from excellent website www.serbianna.com
[start serbianna report here]
Jubilant Kosovo Muslims welcome their war criminal
Christine Spolar
Chicago Tribune
April 07, 2008 4:00 AM [end serbianna report here]
Apr. 7–PRISTINA, Kosovo — Ramush Haradinaj’s victory tour headed into some harsh hills of this tiny new country.
His brawny motorcade of white and black SUVs rumbled through miles of farmland in western Kosovo that, nearly 10 years from war, still bear the scars of loss. Every half-hour, the former rebel commander once known as Rambo landed in another field of black granite gravestones.
Crowds turned out in their villages this weekend to applaud Haradinaj’s acquittal last week on war crime charges stemming from his years with the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA; Haradinaj arrived to shake hands among the family graves and to offer his own tribute.
“We are all here because of these people,” Haradinaj said, time and again, in the chill air. “Now the world knows what we know: This war was just. Our fight was just.”
A three-judge panel of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia cleared Haradinaj, the highest-profile ethnic Albanian to be sent to The Hague, of charges that the KLA persecuted and murdered largely Serb and Roma civilians in rebel attacks from March to September 1998.
In the remote villages where many former fighters live, Haradinaj’s brethren read the court ruling as a proper coda to their long battle for Kosovo’s independence from Serbia.
“It’s a great honor for us that he is back and that he is with us today,” said Selvije Fahmilladrovci, who stood in the damp grass of a cemetery where dozens of family members were buried. “We can’t separate Ramush from our brothers who died. We know what they fought for.”
At the bullet-scarred homestead of the Jashari family in the Drenica valley–where rebel fighter Adem Jashari and dozens of others died in battle with the Yugoslav army–old men allowed that the court gave new meaning to the deaths of so many.
Their people died as part of an honorable battle, they said, and Haradinaj was returned to them as a matter of justice.
“This place is part of Ramush himself,” 57-year-old Hasir Ahmeti said. “Seeing him brings back the memories.”
Decision upsets Serbia
The decision by the UN court at The Hague deeply upset Serbia, which has seen its share of former fighters indicted on war crimes linked to the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia.
In its ruling on Haradinaj and two of his fighters, the court found that the Yugoslav army was deployed on the ground by April 1998 and the KLA engaged in a battle. Civilian deaths, and notably those of Serbs and Roma or alleged collaborators among ethnic Albanians, were not of a scale to be judged as a broad attack on the civilian population, the court said.
All three men were acquitted on all counts on allegations of crimes against humanity. One of Haradinaj’s aides was convicted of two counts of torture and cruelty, among dozens of charges facing the men. He was sentenced to prison.
The court decision–roundly portrayed as an exoneration of the KLA by Kosovo’s political elite–comes at a particularly bitter time for Serbia. Less than two months ago, Kosovo declared independence.
Serbia has refused to recognize the independence. Serbs in Kosovo, who account for 1 of every 10 people in this country of 2 million, have been living an uneasy existence, unsure of Kosovo’s promises of democratic order and under pressure by Serbia’s hard-line leaders.
For those Serbs, Haradinaj’s two-day tour of villages could hardly be called a welcome sight.
Albanians celebrate culture
The red-and-black Albanian flag fluttered above every community. Ethnic Albanians in traditional dress danced through some streets. Only the biggest cities flew the blue-and-yellow banner of the new democratic Kosovo. Haradinaj’s every speech championed the sacrifices of the ethnic Albanian cause.
Haradinaj asked the crowds to continue to struggle for a strong Kosovo. “We have to be careful. We can’t be overjoyed,” he said during one stop. “There are all big tasks ahead of us.” Asked later about the image of ethnic Albanian fighters standing together under a flag that signaled the KLA cause, Haradinaj shook his head.
He made no excuses for paying respects to those who had changed Kosovo’s destiny.
Serbs in Kosovo who knew his political past–Haradinaj had been a regional prime minister for a few months just before his indictment–would understand his tour through this new Kosovo, he said. For three years, while under indictment, Haradinaj was restricted from political life.
The roadshow through the countryside was part sentimental journey and, with political aides all around, the dawn of a new political career for Haradinaj.
“We reach out and some Serb citizens know what we do–but they also tell us, ‘Keep this low profile.’ They don’t want to be easy targets for Belgrade,” Haradinaj said. “That’s it.
“But Belgrade has to think about what they do here. Are they working for the people here? … I don’t owe anything to Belgrade. They ruined our lives. What I owe them is this: that I will be a good neighbor,” he said.
The roadshow ended Saturday night with Haradinaj at his family home in the village of Gllogjan. He embraced his mother. He raised a glass of spicy raki with his father. He visited the graves of two of his brothers, resting among dozens of others on a hillside, before sitting down for a meal with a roomful of survivors.
cspolar@tribune.com
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