Kosovo’s prime minister has resigned after a war crimes court in The Hague summoned him for questioning as a suspect.<\/p>\n
Ramush Haradinaj, 51, served as a rebel commander in the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict, which eventually led to Kosovo declaring independence.<\/p>\n
He said he stepped down so he could attend court as an ordinary citizen.<\/p>\n
Mr Haradinaj, who denies war crimes charges, has been tried and acquitted twice at the UN tribunal.<\/p>\n
“I received a call by the special court as a suspect and was offered to go as the prime minister or as an ordinary citizen of Kosovo,” he told reporters on Friday. “I chose the latter.”<\/p>\n
“Responsibility now goes to the president to start consultations to set the date of the [general] election,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Haradinaj said he would be questioned next week.<\/p>\n
The special EU-backed court was set up in 2015 to try war crimes allegedly committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) against ethnic minorities and political opponents.<\/p>\n
Mr Haradinaj served as a commander of the KLA during the war with Serbia. Serbia has alleged that he oversaw a campaign of torture and murder against ethnic Serbs during the conflict.<\/p>\n
He has been acquitted twice on war crimes charges at The Hague – first in 2008 and then in 2012. But Serbia said it had further evidence involving civilian murders.<\/p>\n
Mr Haradinaj has consistently denied the allegations, and stepped down as prime minister after just 100 days in 2005 to face the charges.<\/p>\n
The judge at his most recent trial in 2012 said there was no evidence to support the claims.<\/p>\n
Kosovo was formerly a province of Serbia. Years of tensions turned into open conflict in 1998, when the Serbian government launched a crackdown.<\/p>\n
It eventually withdrew its troops from Kosovo after a two-month campaign of air strikes by Nato in 1999. An estimated 10,000 people died in the conflict and about 1,700 remain missing.<\/p>\n
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, although Serbia has never recognised this.<\/p>\n
Mr Haradinaj was held for over a week in France in 2017 on a Serbian arrest warrant before being released.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"