Serbia called on the UN Saturday to annul the election of former ethnic Albanian rebel commander Ramush Haradinaj as prime minister of Kosovo by the parliament of the UN-run southern Serbian province.
Soren Jessen-Petersen, head of the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), should "annul the provocative and risky act of the election of Ramush Haradinaj to lead the government of Kosovo," a Serbian government statement said.
It said Haradinaj was wanted by Serbia's judiciary on 108 counts alleging war crimes against Serb civilians.
Haradinaj, 35, was a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrilla movement during the 1998-1999 separatist war against Serbian forces, and has recently been questioned by UN war crimes investigators.
His nomination for prime minister by President Ibrahim Rugova following October parliamentary polls has been questioned by European officials, although he has not been charged with any crimes and denies all the allegations.
UNMIK, established after a NATO air campaign ended a brutal Serbian crackdown in the province in 1999, has not objected to his nomination.
The ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo -- which is technically a province of Serbia -- has accused Haradinaj, one of the most prominent figures in the separatist movement, of committing atrocities against Serb civilians while he was in charge of the KLA's western operations during the war.
He is considered a "terrorist" in Belgrade and the party of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica issued a strongly worded statement Friday describing his appointment as yet another blow to the Serb minority in Kosovo.
"With no objection to Haradinaj's election, UNMIK and the international community ... have sent a message to the Serbs and non-Albanians that there will be no justice, rule of law, freedom or basic human rights in Kosovo," the Democratic Party of Serbia said.
"They should not by any means allow a man who has attracted the serious attention of the UN tribunal to be elected prime minister. Haradinaj's election does not contribute to a solution, but to the intensification of the crisis."
Saturday's statement followed an emergency session of the Serbian government called by Kostunica, who described Haradinaj's election as a "political provocation."
"It will naturally be difficult to pursue a dialogue with the authorities in Kosovo when they are represented by a man accused of war crimes," he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not