PRISTINA, Feb 21 (Hina) - Several thousand Albanians on Thursday staged a rally in Malisevo protesting against an indictment which the UN war crimes tribunal issued against a high-ranking officer of the former Kosovo Liberation Army
(OVK) and the whip of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Fatmir Limaj.
PRISTINA, Feb 21 (Hina) - Several thousand Albanians on Thursday
staged a rally in Malisevo protesting against an indictment which
the UN war crimes tribunal issued against a high-ranking officer of
the former Kosovo Liberation Army (OVK) and the whip of the
Democratic Party of Kosovo, Fatmir Limaj. #L#
Limaj, together with other three Kosovo Albanians, is indicted by
the ICTY for the abuse and killing of a score of prisoners -- Serb
and Albanian civilians -- kept at Lapusnik jail near Glogovac in
1998. Their indictment was unsealed earlier this week.
The three men -- Haradin Baljaj, Isak Musliu and Agim Murtezi --
were arrested by international police units in Kosovo on Monday and
transferred to the detention centre of the ICTY (International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) in Scheveningen on
Tuesday. Limaj was subsequently apprehended by Slovene police
while he was on a business trip.
Demonstrators in Malesovo insisted on Limaj's liberation and on
making it possible for him to defend himself in freedom.
Limaj's Democratic Party of Kosovo, led by Hashim Thaqi on Thursday
released a statement asserting that the latest arrests, including
the apprehension of this party's senior official, were politically
motivated.
The party, established mainly by former OVK members, added that OVK
units had never committed crimes against the civilian population
and that they had abode by the rules and customs of war in accordance
to international conventions.
The statement describes the ICTY's indictments against the four
ethnic Albanians as a bid to distribute the guilt for war in Kosovo
equally to everybody.
Kosovo's parliament on Thursday adjourned its session because of
the latest developments and the tribunal's indictment against one
of its members. The decision on the session's postponement was made
unanimously by representatives of all parliamentary benches, and
the assembly's chairman Nexhat Daci called on the international
community to allow the assembly to give assurances for Limaj and for
his release from custody.
(hina) ms