Shootout in Kosovo

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Sat Jul 8 08:25:41 PDT 2000


July 8, 2000

U.N. Police Probe Kosovo Shooting

Filed at 2:25 a.m. EDT

By The Associated Press

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- In a case that could have serious repercussions throughout Kosovo, U.N. police are investigating a shootout between a former Kosovo Liberation Army commander-turned politician and a family allied with his political rivals.

Ramush Haradinaj was taken to the U.S. military hospital at Camp Bondsteel following the Friday shooting, which occurred in the western village of Streoce. Haradinaj's condition was stable, NATO spokesman Maj. Scott Slaten said.

Haradinaj's political party, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, said the former KLA commander and his relative, Daut Haradinaj, were traveling by car when their vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Daut Haradinaj is a sector commander of the Kosovo Protection Force, which was organized as a civil emergency unit after the KLA was officially disbanded last year.

In Streoce, Sadik Musa claimed the Haradinajs and some of their followers attacked his home about 1 a.m. with automatic weapons. Musa told Associated Press Television New that he and his relatives returned fire, wounding the two Haradinajs.

Musa and others claimed the attack was launched because they support Haradinaj's rivals in the Democratic League of Kosovo, led by Ibrahim Rugova. Musa said Ramush Haradinaj abducted his brother last year because he was fighting in a rival ethnic Albanian militia led by Bujar Bukoshi, who is a member of Rugova's party.

Musa spoke under the trees in front of his home, which was pocked with bullet holes. Italian and U.N. police stood guard. Two bullet-riddled cars were parked in the compound and bloodstains were visible on the ground.

``He wants to win the election in Kosovo by force, by killing his rivals,'' another man, Beslim Balaj, said of Haradinaj.

The Associated Press telephoned Ramush Haradinaj's party for comment on the allegations but was told no spokesman was available.

The incident could drive up political tensions among Kosovo Albanians in advance of local elections expected in October.

The case also raises questions about NATO's control of the Kosovo Protection Corps, which was supposed to be an unarmed, civilian relief and humanitarian organization set up last year to provide a role for former KLA fighters.

When the protection corps was organized, NATO assured both the Kosovo Serb community and international governments that its officers would be placed under strict control and would not serve as a paramilitary group.

Ramush Haradinaj was a leading commander in the ethnic Albanian guerrilla army during the 18-month conflict with the Serbs, which prompted NATO military intervention last year.

After the conflict ended and NATO-led peacekeepers replaced Serb forces here, Haradinaj organized what is believed to be the third-largest political party in the ethnic Albanian community.

In May, Haradinaj scuffled with Russian peacekeepers, after they stopped him at a checkpoint. He suffered a black eye when he was briefly detained, after two weapons were found in his car without proper paperwork.

NATO said he had attempted to flee and that peacekeepers and military police ``subdued him.''



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