Posted on 03/23/2006 8:08:22 AM PST by montyspython
UN urges West to ignore Serbia's arrest warrant for Kosovo PM
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro-Kosovo's top U.N. official has urged Western powers to ignore an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia against the province's prime minister, in a letter obtained Wednesday.
Soren Jessen-Petersen, the chief U.N. official in charge of running the province, said that his mission did not recognize the validity of the warrant issued in Serbia against Agim Ceku, a former rebel commander who became Kosovo's prime minister earlier this month.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Jessen-Petersen cited the U.N.'s sole legal jurisdiction over Kosovo and said that Serbia's warrants against Ceku and Hashim Thaci, another senior former rebel leader-turned-politican, "breaches this principle."
Ceku and Thaci were both leaders of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, the guerrilla group that fought Serb forces during province's 1998-1999 war. Both are now part of U.N.-sponsored talks to resolve the future status of the disputed province.
"Given the need for both Prime Minister Ceku and Hashim Thaci to be able to move freely, including in order to be part of the status process, it is important that the Interpol warrants against them be put aside as soon as possible," Jessen-Petersen said.
The circumstances were explained to Interpol, "so far without effect," he said.
Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since mid-1999, when NATO's air war halted Serb forces crackdown on ethnic Albanian majority, forcing Belgrade to relinquish control over the province.
Serbian authorities have said they are investigating Ceku for war crimes, including genocide, against Serbs. He has not been formally charged, but they have issued an international warrant for his arrest. Ceku denied wrongdoing and has called the charges politically motivated.
Both ethnic Albanian leaders have been detained in Slovenia and Hungary based on those warrants and were released only after U.N. officials intervened.
The U.N. officials have said they requested the Serbian authorities to withdraw the warrants, but claimed that Serbia did not act on their demand.
March 22, 2006 12:45 PM
bump
So what if they are drug-running terrorist mass murderers? They are Kofi's mass murderers, so they must be freed.
BTTT
I'm without words.....or words that I shouldn't write here. Let's forget about Charles Manson, he deserves a pardon.
I can allready see it:
"UN representative in New mexico sais that Osama Bin ladens indictement does not imply on New Mexico since USA does not have any ingerencys in that former US state
"
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