Also charged were Haradinaj's deputies from the KLA, Lahmi Brahimaj and Idriz Balaj. All three voluntarily surrendered to the Hague-based tribunal on Wednesday and were placed in its detention unit in the Hague district of Scheveningen.
Haradinaj, Brahimaj and Balaj are charged with involvement in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at consolidating the KLA's control of the western part of Kosovo known as Metohija. They are also charged with attacking, persecuting and forcibly transferring Serbian civilians and preventing any form of cooperation between the Albanians and Roma on the one side and the Serbs on the other.
Haradinaj, 36, also known as Smajl, commander of the Dukagjin area of operations, is charged with 17 counts of crimes against humanity for persecution, murder, rape, deportation, detention of civilians, and other inhumane acts. He is also charged with 20 counts of violations of the laws and customs of war for cruel treatment, murder and rape.
All the crimes alleged in the indictment were committed between March 1 and September 1998 in the municipalities of Decani, Pec, Djakovica, Istok and Klina against Serbian civilians and those Albanians and Roma believed to be collaborating with the Serbs or not supporting the KLA.
The indictment says that the three men are individually criminally responsible for planning, instigating, ordering, committing or otherwise aiding and abetting the commission of the alleged crimes.