Colombia detains Kosovo war crimes suspect

Colombia has detained but released an ethnic Albanian war crimes suspect who was once a so-called prime minister of Kosovo.

“According to their law, acts committed before 2005 they cannot extradite a foreigner. They [Colombia] asked us to keep communications through the diplomatic channels on possibilities of detaining [Ceku],” said Serbia’s deputy PM Ivica Dacic.

Ceku was in Colombia to take part in the “international conference for demilitarization of freedom armies”.

Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe is considered a “friend” of Washington who is pressuring countries to recognize Kosovo’s illegal independence declaration.

“While referring to the arrest warrant Serbia issued one year ago for the former commander of Kosovo protection force, Agim Ceku, Belgrade authorities insisted from the Colombian authorities to arrest the head of PSD,? said Gezim Kasapolli, spokesman for the political party that Ceku heads.

The spokesman at the ethnic Albanian separatist interior matters confirmed that Ceku was arrested by the Colombian authorities but released.

“The detention of former Prime Minister has been made on the bases of an earlier arrest warrant for genocide against Serb civilians. However, this arrest warrant was later suspended by Colombian authorities, while refusing its extradition to Belgrade,” the spokesman said.

Ceku, a former colonel in the Croatian army, commanded the notorious 1993 Medak Pocket operation killing 500 Serb civilians. Canadian troops that witnessed the atrocities demanded that Ceku be arrested for war crimes.

In 1998, Ceku moved to Serbia’s Kosovo province where he commanded ethnic Albanian separatist units, the KLA, that took part in killing Serb civilians.

Ceku was often invited to NATO briefings with top generals such as Wesley Clark and Michael Jackson.

While in Colombia, Ceku was telling the visitors of the war KLA’s experience and claimed that attacks on Serbs was legitimate.

May 7, 2009
SERBIANNA

Tags: Kosovo

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