ny times
By MARLISE SIMONS
Published: December 18, 2010
Published: December 18, 2010
PARIS — A former prime minister of Kosovo awaiting trial in The Hague has been told he cannot be given temporary release from prison and return home because his presence there could increase threats to witnesses who have agreed to testify against him.
The travel ban for former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned in 2005, was published Thursday at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He had been granted temporary freedom until the start of his war crimes trial early next year, but prosecutors objected.
The trial will be the second for Mr. Haradinaj before the tribunal. He faces charges of murder, rape and torture, alleged to have been carried out by men under his command in the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought Serbian forces during the 1998-9 war. He has denied wrongdoing.
The travel ban, issued by appeals judges, said that Mr. Haradinaj’s release could “add to the threatening atmosphere” that existed for witnesses. It cited court findings of rampant witness intimidation that has continued within Kosovo and in the past has often also crossed international lines.
The concerns surrounding the case also seem to support a broader worry about Kosovo: that even as the newly independent nation has moved forward with a peaceful political process, its culture remains dominated by tight clans, and loyalty and silence are still matters of life and death.
The ruling coincided with the entirely separate publication of a galvanizing report on organized crime in Kosovo in which European investigators also depicted the fear they found among Kosovars as they tried to investigate the criminal networks.
Led by Dick Marty, a former Swiss prosecutor, the two-year inquiry published a draft report on Thursday that included an account of trafficking in kidneys extracted from Serbian prisoners executed during the war.
Although other accounts of the organ trafficking have appeared in a book and in journalistic reports in recent years, the inquiry disclosed chilling new details and it linked the present prime minister, Hashim Thaci, to the gang of entrepreneurs involved in the trade. Mr. Thaci has denounced the findings as “scandalous.”
Fear and the culture of silence have also led to the coming retrial of Mr. Haradinaj and two of his former comrades. In 2008, after he had been detained for three years in The Hague, the trial judges acquitted him, for lack of evidence, in charges of crimes against Serbian civilians. The decision caused outrage in Serbia.
But earlier this year, appeals judges ordered him retried because, they said, the intimidation of some witnesses had been so serious that it had undermined his trial and produced “a miscarriage of justice.” Of the 100 witnesses called, judges had to allow 34 to hide their identity, 18 had to be subpoenaed because they refused to appear, and others, once inside the courtroom, said they did not dare testify.
Another trial at the tribunal that involved three former Kosovar fighters faced similar obstacles, and two of them were acquitted in 2005. After three witnesses were killed, others retracted their statements. Some told prosecutors that they had gotten warning shots and threats to their children. One lost his leg when his car was blown up.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 18, 2010
An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect year for the resignation of Mr. Haradinaj.
The travel ban for former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, who resigned in 2005, was published Thursday at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He had been granted temporary freedom until the start of his war crimes trial early next year, but prosecutors objected.
The trial will be the second for Mr. Haradinaj before the tribunal. He faces charges of murder, rape and torture, alleged to have been carried out by men under his command in the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought Serbian forces during the 1998-9 war. He has denied wrongdoing.
The travel ban, issued by appeals judges, said that Mr. Haradinaj’s release could “add to the threatening atmosphere” that existed for witnesses. It cited court findings of rampant witness intimidation that has continued within Kosovo and in the past has often also crossed international lines.
The concerns surrounding the case also seem to support a broader worry about Kosovo: that even as the newly independent nation has moved forward with a peaceful political process, its culture remains dominated by tight clans, and loyalty and silence are still matters of life and death.
The ruling coincided with the entirely separate publication of a galvanizing report on organized crime in Kosovo in which European investigators also depicted the fear they found among Kosovars as they tried to investigate the criminal networks.
Led by Dick Marty, a former Swiss prosecutor, the two-year inquiry published a draft report on Thursday that included an account of trafficking in kidneys extracted from Serbian prisoners executed during the war.
Although other accounts of the organ trafficking have appeared in a book and in journalistic reports in recent years, the inquiry disclosed chilling new details and it linked the present prime minister, Hashim Thaci, to the gang of entrepreneurs involved in the trade. Mr. Thaci has denounced the findings as “scandalous.”
Fear and the culture of silence have also led to the coming retrial of Mr. Haradinaj and two of his former comrades. In 2008, after he had been detained for three years in The Hague, the trial judges acquitted him, for lack of evidence, in charges of crimes against Serbian civilians. The decision caused outrage in Serbia.
But earlier this year, appeals judges ordered him retried because, they said, the intimidation of some witnesses had been so serious that it had undermined his trial and produced “a miscarriage of justice.” Of the 100 witnesses called, judges had to allow 34 to hide their identity, 18 had to be subpoenaed because they refused to appear, and others, once inside the courtroom, said they did not dare testify.
Another trial at the tribunal that involved three former Kosovar fighters faced similar obstacles, and two of them were acquitted in 2005. After three witnesses were killed, others retracted their statements. Some told prosecutors that they had gotten warning shots and threats to their children. One lost his leg when his car was blown up.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 18, 2010
An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect year for the resignation of Mr. Haradinaj.
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