Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07PRISTINA68
2007-01-25 18:09:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Pristina
Cable title:  

KOSOVO: HARADINAJ TRIAL TO COMMENCE IN MARCH IN

Tags:  KAWC PGOV KJUS KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK ICTY YI 
pdf how-to read a cable
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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6963
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1001
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHFMISS/AFSOUTH NAPLES IT
RHMFISS/CDR TF FALCON
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGEA/CDR650THMIGP SHAPE BE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUFOANA/USNIC PRISTINA SR
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000068 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, DRL, INL, AND S/WCI, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN
FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER, OPDAT FOR
ACKER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2016
TAGS: KAWC PGOV KJUS KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK ICTY YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: HARADINAJ TRIAL TO COMMENCE IN MARCH IN
THE HAGUE

Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRISTINA 000068

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/SCE, DRL, INL, AND S/WCI, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN
FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER, OPDAT FOR
ACKER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2016
TAGS: KAWC PGOV KJUS KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK ICTY YI
SUBJECT: KOSOVO: HARADINAJ TRIAL TO COMMENCE IN MARCH IN
THE HAGUE

Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced on January 24 that the war
crimes trial of former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander
and former Kosovo PM Ramush Haradinaj and his subordinates,
Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj, will commence on March 5,

2007. The pre-trial conference will take place on March 1,

2007. Haradinaj could go to The Hague as early as late
February. Haradinaj is leader of the Alliance for the Future
of Kosovo (AAK) party -- a partner in the ruling coalition --
and continues to exert considerable influence over Kosovo
politics. AAK insider Ahmet Isufi is likely to take over as
party president during Haradinaj's eventual absence, but will
lack the influential reach Haradinaj enjoys within and
outside the party, making it a tougher job to maintain
widespread political consensus on key status-related issues.
We judge the likelihood of a significant public reaction to
Haradinaj's transfer to the Hague to be remote, since
Haradinaj has already made the commitment to go, but
nevertheless ICTY plans a public outreach campaign in Kosovo
that will stress the simultaneous trial of former
high-ranking Serbian officials charged with war crimes
against Kosovars during the 1999 conflict. END SUMMARY.

Haradinaj Transfer and Trial Dates Set


2. (C) The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced on January 24 that the trial
against former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and former Kosovo
PM Ramush Haradinaj will begin on March 5, 2007 in The Hague.
The pre-trial conference will begin on March 1, 2007.
Haradinaj is still in Kosovo on provisional release. ICTY

Kosovo Representative Bronwyn Jones (protect) told poloff
that the ICTY will negotiate his transfer with UNMIK. UNMIK
officials said that the transfer would likely take place a
couple of weeks prior to the start date and noted that
earlier trips by Haradinaj to the Hague during his period of
provisional release had been low-key affairs.

The Charges Against Haradinaj and His Co-Defendants


3. (SBU) Ramush Haradinaj (a.k.a. Smajl),Idriz Balaj (a.k.a.
Toger/Togeri or Lieutenant) and Lahi Brahimaj (a.k.a. Maxhup
or Gipsy) were all charged with crimes against humanity and
violations of the laws or customs of war in a sealed
indictment on December 22, 2004. The indictment was revised
on March 4, 2005, and unsealed on March 10, 2005. All three
surrendered to the ICTY on March 9, 2005. They appeared
before the tribunal on March 14, entering a plea of "not
guilty." Haradinaj was granted provisional release from
April 17-19, 2005 to attend his brother's funeral. On June
6, 2005 he was also granted provisional release to return to
Kosovo during preparations for his trial, and he remains in
Pristina pending transfer to The Hague. His co-defendants
never left the Hague.


4. (SBU) According to ICTY documents, Haradinaj and the
others were allegedly co-perpetrators in a joint criminal
enterprise that sought to consolidate KLA control over the
KLA Operational Zone of Dukagjin (western Kosovo) between
March 1, 1998 and September 20, 1998 by attacking and
persecuting Serb, Roma, Egyptian and Albanian civilians. The
Dukagjin Operational Zone encompassed the municipalities of
Peja, Decan, Gjakove, and parts of the municipalities of
Istog and Kline. Haradinaj, one of the most senior KLA
leaders, commanded all of the KLA forces in Dukagjin. Balaj
was a member of the KLA and the commander of a special unit
called the "Black Eagles," while Brahimaj acted as a deputy
commander of the Dukagjin Operative staff. A close relative
of Haradinaj, Brahimaj was stationed in Jablanice and
allegedly ran a detention center there. Both Balaj and
Brahimaj reported directly to Haradinaj.


5. (SBU) In addition to the allegations that Haradinaj and
his co-defendants mounted a systematic ethnic cleansing

PRISTINA 00000068 002 OF 003


campaign in the Dukagjin area, the indictment accuses them of
repeatedly attacking a refugee camp in the village of Babaloq
near Decan and detaining, beating and torturing 16
noncombatants at their camp in Jablanice between the second
half of May and August 1998. One of the detainees died, and
the others are still missing. According to the indictment,
Serb forces temporarily retook part of the territory at the
end of August and beginning of September 1998, and Serbian
forensic investigators found 39 bodies and partial remains,
several of which were identified as those of Serb, Roma and
Albanian civilians who disappeared between April and early
September 1998 in the Dukagjin area.

Haradinaj's Transfer Creates a Void, Ahmet Isufi Likely to
Succeed Him


6. (SBU) Haradinaj is the president of the Alliance for the
Future of Kosovo (AAK) party, which is a member of the
Kosovo's governing coalition. He continues to exert
considerable influence in Kosovo, both within his own party
and across the political spectrum. Despite the other
accusations against him, Haradinaj has been credited with
saving the Decan Monastery and calming the situation during
the March 2004 riots, as well as being a moderating influence
on KLA war veterans groups throughout the postwar period.


7. (SBU) Ahmet Isufi will likely become the AAK's acting
president when Haradinaj leaves. Isufi is the AAK's first
vice president and a former minister of labor and social
welfare and Kosovo Assembly member. In the 1980's, he spent
six years in prison for being a member of an ethnic Albanian
clandestine movement. In 1997, he joined the KLA. A close
associate of Haradinaj, Isufi was a commander in eastern
Kosovo during the war. He later joined the Kosovo Protection
Corps (KPC) as the chief of personnel. He became active in
Kosovo politics in April 2002 when he left the KPC to join
Haradinaj in his efforts to establish the AAK. A Haradinaj
loyalist, Isufi resigned his cabinet position as Minister of
Labor and Social Welfare in protest over Haradinaj's
extradition to The Hague.


8. (C) Though we and others in Kosovo judge the likelihood of
a significant public response to Haradinaj's transfer to be
low, ICTY is taking no chances and will launch an information
campaign throughout Kosovo that will stress ICTY's balanced
approach and highlight the ongoing Milutinovic trial at The
Hague. (Note: Former Serbian President and Member of the
Supreme Defense Council of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Milan Milutinovic and five other high-ranking Serbian
officials are charged with persecution on political, racial
or religious grounds, murder, deportation and forcible
transfer during the Kosovo conflict. To date, Kosovo media
have shown little interest in this trial despite the fact
that the alleged crimes affected almost every Kosovar. End
note.)


9. (C) COMMENT: The timing of Haradinaj's transfer and trial
is not unexpected. Haradinaj's cooperative reaction to the
initial indictment and subsequent proceedings has done much
to calm public reaction. Nevertheless, the decision comes at
a particularly sensitive moment -- just after the much
anticipated unveiling of UN Special Envoy Ahtisaari's final
status package on February 2. Haradinaj is an influential
player across the divide of Kosovo's fractious political
parties who was strongly supportive of the Ahtisaari process;
his departure will make the job of achieving political
consensus around key aspects of the status package -- and
implementing those provisions -- harder, though by no means
impossible. His absence from the political scene may also
embolden his arch-rival, PDK leader Hashim Thaci, to consider
another run at bringing down the existing government
coalition and installing himself as Prime Minister. Thaci is
extremely unlikely to succeed in such an effort, but the
LDK-AAK government will unquestionably be weakened by
Haradinaj's prolonged absence. USOP will monitor
developments over the next few weeks with regard to

PRISTINA 00000068 003 OF 003


Haradinaj's departure and report on any related issues. END
COMMENT.


10. (SBU) U.S. Office Pristina clears this cable in its
entirety for release to U.N. Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
KAIDANOW