Posted on 10/22/2003 3:24:58 PM PDT by joan
Police in Slovenia have detained the former commander of Albanian rebels in Kosovo on the basis of a Serbian arrest warrant.
Agim Ceku commanded the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) when it was fighting for independence from Serbia and now leads a civil emergency force there, the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC).
He was detained at Ljubljana airport while travelling between Kosovo and Croatia.
A spokeswoman for the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague told the BBC that Mr Ceku had not been indicted by the court.
However, the Slovene authorities said he was being held on the basis of a Serbian arrest warrant delivered via Interpol.
Details of the charges contained in the warrant have not been released.
Another former rebel leader in Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, who is now a politician, was briefly detained in Hungary nearly four months ago on the basis of another warrant issued by Serbia.
The KLA has been blamed for war crimes by the Serbian authorities.
'Old warrant'
Mr Ceku told news agencies by telephone that he was being kept in a small room and guarded by two police officers.
"I was told I am wanted by the Serb government, which has issued an arrest warrant," he told The Associated Press.
"They told me they can't release me without consulting the [Slovene] authorities."
A source at the UN mission in Kosovo (Unmik), which has been governing the mainly Albanian province since Serbia withdrew in 1999 after a Nato bombing campaign, said it seemed that Mr Ceku had been arrested on the basis of an "old" warrant.
"Unmik is working to resolve this problem with the Slovenian authorities," the source told Reuters news agency.
The 3,000-strong KPC which Mr Ceku now leads is closely supervised by both Unmik and the Nato-led peacekeeping force, K-for.
Former Kosovo rebel commander released from detention in Slovenia
If UNMIK does not recognize the Serbian Legal Arrest Warrents, how does the Hauge expect Serbia to further recognize the Hauge's "legal" documents?
It's the seemingly endless procession of double standards that really pisses me off. Not only that, these double standards guarantee that the maps as they exsist right now are in no way near permanent.
Though it may not happen tomorrow or next week or in the next decade, stay tuned for more "understandable revenge".
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