That’s exactly that :
http://www.interpol.int/Public/Wanted/Default.asp

> The persons concerned are wanted by national jurisdictions (or the International Criminal Tribunals, where appropriate) and Interpol’s role is to assist the national police forces in identifying or locating those persons with a view to their arrest and extradition.

Interpol warrant aren’t legaly recognized, they are juste a notice of “we want this guy”, not real warrant. And if there isn’t a billateral agreement between the two countries for extradition, it doesn’t help much.

One striking example was the discussion on terrorism:
“When, say, the Serbian or Croatian forces attack civilians that’s a war crime, but if KLA did so then it’s terrorism. Just because one uses tanks to murder civilians does not exclude them from being a terrorist and vice versa”
By the same token, when one uses planes to bomb
civilian targets(such as embassies, trains, radio stations and factories, not to mention houses) and expresses regret, but fails to take any measures to avoid such occurences in the future, this was ” bloody but necessary surgery”
Go figure…

The second example is how history gets clouded:
“What ‘ceasefire’ are you talking about? You mean the complete and utter military defeat of the Milosevic’s (police, military and paramilitary) forces in Kosovo? Yeah, yeah, I get it. There was a ceasefire, but only for one side to get its troops out of the war zone.”

As far as most people understand, Serb forces withdrew from Kossovo after 80 days of bombing
(which produced relatively few military casualties and much more crippling economic/civilian damages) under the Ahtisaari plan, which had promised that Kossovo would remain part of Yugoslavia…(Yes, the same Ahtisaari who later recommened “supervised independence”)

I am also at a loss as who actually carried out
the “post-NATO … violence against innocent civilians, mainly of Serbian ethnicity”.
Since it is not proven that
” the perpetrators of these crimes were member of the KLA who were either acting under the orders of Agim Ceku or that Agim Ceku had prior knowledge of these actions and did nothing to prevent them”, one must conclude that these acts were carried out by ghosts. The same ghosts that carried out similar acts all over Yugoslavia without any proof that Mr. Milosevic, Tudzman, Karadzic, Mladic, Thaci, Ceku or any of the rest of the ex-Yugoslavia
great leaders had any knowledge or control over these ghosts.

Thanks for taking the time to get back to us. If you don’t mind, I will continue asking some more questions — some of which were not answered previously.

1.
Just as if to prove my previous point, which was not addressed by you, this week new opinion polls showed Agim Ceku as being the most popular politician in Kosovo (see in Albanian: http://www.telegrafi.com/?id=2&a=4754 and http://www.gazetaexpress.com/index.php/artikujt/lexo/10739/C4/C13). Needless to say, this does not prove he is guilty of anything or otherwise, however it does show that at least with regards to this particular topic you are out of touch. You stated that ‘he’s sort of retired now, or at least politically in eclipse’ which is clearly not the case. Don’t take my word for it, look at the opinion polls. My question to you is, if you got this wrong then what else did you also get wrong.

2.
I am glad you brought up Operation Medak Pocket. The other question that you did not address can now be asked more directly. Why, in your opinion, was Rrahim Ademi (the spelling is not wrong, in Albanian his name is spelled with double R) indicted – and acquitted – by the ICTY for atrocities committed against Serbs during Operation Medak Pocket but Agim Ceku was not? If one is not able to convincingly answer this question then s/he cannot credibly claim that Agim Ceku was guilty of any crimes. He was not even indicted let alone given the change to prove his innocence. With regards to accusation from within Serbia, of course, they will accuse a military commander who handed them defeats of all sorts of crimes, even genocide for goodness sake.

3.
Unless coordination with Croatian and Diaspora supporters constitutes a crime then we can conclude that at least until April-May 1999 Agim Ceku was not charge, hence not directly responsible of any crime.

4.
Again, worryingly you use some terms that portray a complete and utter Serb bias. What ‘ceasefire’ are you talking about? You mean the complete and utter military defeat of the Milosevic’s (police, military and paramilitary) forces in Kosovo? Yeah, yeah, I get it. There was a ceasefire, but only for one side to get its troops out of the war zone.

5.
Now, post-NATO victory period was sadly and regrettably marked with violence against innocent civilians, mainly of Serbian ethnicity. Was it unexpected considering the circumstances and what took place in Kosovo before and during the war? I am not sure. However, it is should be completely, utterly and unreservedly condemned. The very serious allegation that you are raising is that the perpetrators of these crimes were member of the KLA who were either acting under the orders of Agim Ceku or that Agim Ceku had prior knowledge of these actions and did nothing to prevent them. Now, again, there is precious little detail – if any – of this. If this was true I would be the first one to condemn Agim Ceku, but thus far there is been absolutely no proof. First of all, we need to see proof that the perpetrators were KLA members; that they were active KLA members; that they were under the command of Agim Ceku and moreover that Agim Ceku had knowledge of these crimes and did not prevent them. In spite of all the theories of why there is no evidence against Agim Ceku, I am still puzzled as to how can you conclude that ‘it’s very likely he’s guilty.’ It’s not up to me to prove his innocence; it’s up to those who accuse him of being guilty to prove they point. The man has not even been indicted, not given the chance to prove his innocence, but you still state that it’s very likely he’s guilty. This is astoundingly cavalier. To add insult to injury, you call these ‘reasonable suppositions.’

6.
I am astounded that you can come up with statements like this: ‘the Croats were very good about wiping the files after Operation Storm.’ The Kosovar Albanians are, of course, clannish (read: backwards). In other words, there is absolutely no evidence. These really are statements that the likes of Kostunica would be very proud of. If there is not proof then say so, don’t dress it up in Croats did this or Albanians are like that.

7.
Without wanting to go off-topic, I would like to address your last point that JNA ‘did not emphasize careful respect for civilians and captives.’ Well, if you search for, say, ‘afghanistan civilians’ on the BBC website some of the top results are the following:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7549272.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7529063.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7503933.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6263796.stm

You get the picture. Not to mention, Guantanamo Bay or the Abu Ghraib prison. The point I am trying to make is that I find it particularly hard to believe that any army emphasises careful respect for civilians and captives. This is not simply a JNA phenomenon and therefore really does not show or prove anything.

8.
Finally, I wanted to make sure in my last post that I am definitely not trying to accuse you or portray you as being anti this or that or pro this or that. The sad reality is that I have read a lot of your posts and agreed with most of what you say, but I normally write back only when I disagree with something. So, I am definitely not accusing you of being biased, however I do strongly regret some of the terms you have used. When, say, the Serbian or Croatian forces attack civilians that’s a war crime, but if KLA did so then it’s terrorism. Just because one uses tanks to murder civilians does not exclude them from being a terrorist and vice versa.

The point that I am trying to make is that using certain terms that have no clear definition and amount to labelling one side of a conflict is regrettable and rightly raises the question of bias, conscious or otherwise.
The same can be applied to the term ceasefire. Ceasefire is a term used only by one side of the conflict and denotes that the war is not over. Do you really share that view?

Related to this is the issue of genocide. If you had the courage to conclude that Agim Ceku was ‘very likely guilty, why don’t you make a similar ‘reasonable supposition’ about the accusation of genocide?

Best wishes — FP

As someone already pointed out, I wonder how this(or the other cases mentioned, Gotovina etc) differs from the case for Karadjic or Milosevic(especially the later). Other than “everybody knows they are guilty”, what is the hard evidence against the other two? Either you are responsible as commander in chief, or you “just had no knowledge of bad things going on”

@ eni and Fidel: Ceku was involved in the war in Croatia from very early; he commanded the attack on the Medak Pocket in 1993, and held high rank during Operation Storm. Then, in Kosovo, he was active in the KLA from 1998 onwards. For a year this consisted of coordination with Croatian and diaspora supporters; he arrived in Kosovo just before the shooting started, in February 1999. His promotion came at the beginning of April.

The Serbs accuse him of a range of crimes across this whole time period, from the Medak action in 1993 to KLA actions taken against Serb civilians in the aftermath of the ceasefire — a period during which he did, indeed, have command responsibility.

As to his guilt, obviously we’re never going to know for sure. There are several big differences between suspected KLA war criminals and everyone else’s suspected war criminals — Serbs, Croats, Karadzic and Mladic, etc. One is that the KLA was a guerrilla organization, not a formal government or army. Another is the closed and clannish nature of Kosovar Albanian society in general. And a third is the continuing popularity and political activity of many of these guys, which makes it very difficult for Albanian witnesses to come forward.

So we’ll never know… but we can make some reasonable suppositions.

One, atrocities were certainly committed against both captives and civilians at the Medak Pocket. Based on command responsibility alone, Ceku would certainly fall under suspicion.

Two, Operation Storm was pretty much a string of war crimes from beginning to end. It’s very hard to believe that anyone over the rank of lieutenant came out of it with perfectly clean hands. Ceku was a general and a regional commander. What he actually did… well, the Croats were very good about wiping the files after Operation Storm. If you review the Hague convictions, you’ll notice there are relatively few founded solely on Operations Storm and Lightning. Gotovina, of course, and Markac and Cermak… and that’s about it. And even those trials, which should be slam-dunks for the prosecution (Gotovina was commander of an army that spent a couple of weeks openly and enthusiastically committing a wide variety of crimes) are going very slowly because of lack of hard evidence.

That said, it’s clear that at a minumum Ceku did nothing to inhibit or prevent crimes against civilians in his command region.

Three, putting aside the war proper, Ceku was commander of the KLA during the postwar period when thousands of Serbs were driven from their homes, beaten, terrorized or killed, Serb houses were destroyed or stolen, Serb churches were burned, etc. etc. Many of these actions were carried out by KLA members. Ceku was in command, but other than a few very flat public statements about “keeping order”, or that atrocities “could not have been” committed by the KLA, I’m not aware of any actions of his during this period — June to September 1999 — to discourage these attacks. If you know of any, I welcome correction.

Four — and I put this last because it’s the weakest point — Ceku does not strike me as someone who would have been too worried about the laws of war. I’ve never met the man, but public statements, his personal history and secondhand descriptions all paint a consistent picture. He’s intelligent, disciplined, organized and focused; it’s worth noting that he was a career JNA officer at a time when very few ethnic Albanians were allowed to take that path. On the other hand, it’s pretty clear he’s what the British call a hard man. And he was trained in a JNA tradition that — how can I put this? — did not emphasize careful respect for civilians and captives. He graduated from the Belgrade Military Academy, which produced a healthy crop of war criminals for the Hague, including a couple from his own class.

The Peja link was thrown in there, not to suggest that Ceku was involved in it, but to help show the general state of affairs in Kosovo by the time the war began. Perhaps this was unclear; if so, my bad.

As for the terrorism label, one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. The KLA’s tactics during most of the conflict were, objectively, terrorist; they included attacks on civilians and on civilian installations. As you know, I’m generally sympathetic to the K-Albanians, and I think the 1999 war was bloody but necessary surgery. But the KLA had not spent the last three years scrupulously attacking only soldiers and military targets while carefully observing the laws of war.

As for “Serbs accusing someone of genocide”, that’s neither here nor there. ‘A thing may be true even if Lord Halifax says it is true,’

Doug M.

This is one of your poorest writings I have read. It’s so bad it’s hard to know where to begin.

1.

You missed a very important detail in that Agim Ceku was the Chief of Staff of the Kosovar Protection Corps. He only left the post after being hand-picked to lead the Kosovar Government in negotiations with Serbia because of the trust that Kosovar Albanians had/have in him. In Kosovo he is known primarily for his role in the establishment and development of the Kosovar Protection Corps. As he was the Prime Minister of Kosovo during the negotiations with Serbia, he did not take part in the general elections and, thus, it is very difficult to measure his political muscle. However, what is clear is that he remains one of the most trusted leaders (not a term I like to use) in Kosovo, not legging far behind President Sejdiu. And, don’t take my word for it. See the opinion polls conducted in December 2008 (over a year since he left the position of the Kosovar Prime Minister):

http://www.indexkosova.com/fly/?page=6&lang=2

Therefore, saying that he’s semi-retired or politically in eclipse is, at best, somewhat inaccurate.

2.

Serbia accusing someone of genocide? Come on. If you decide to write about this topic then please have the spine to at least ridicule such accusations. The reason why Bulgaria did not extradite General Agim Ceku is because these are politically-motivated charges. I didn’t see any ‘allegedly’ qualifications before any of your statements, which to me seems to be guilt-by-association.

If you could prove why others, such as General Ademi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1458247.stm) have been charged by the ICTY whereas General Ceku has not when they both are Kosovar Albanian who fought on the side of the Croatian Army against the Croatian Serb rebellion then you could begin to give a little credibility to your statements. As long as this difference is not completely and reliably explained then these allegations will remain fabrications of the Serbian authorities for, primarily, internal consumption.

The bottom line is simple: innocent until proven guilty. Serbian authorities have had ample time to provide any evidence of Agim Ceku’s alleged role in war crimes to the ICTY. They can do so even today by lodging files with evidence to the International Criminal Court. While you can write blogs about guilt-by-association, these allegations face a completely different scrutiny in front of a fair and unbiased court. And, you know this. But you still choose to state that ‘it’s very likely he’s guilty.’

It is also important to know that General Agim Ceku became the Chief of Staff of the Kosovar Liberation Army only in May of 1999, one month or so before the war in Kosovo ended. The war in Kosovo ended on June the 10th, 1999. The machine gun crime in Peja that you mentioned took place in 1998. Of what crimes is he accused of? How can you describe someone as ‘quite possibly’ a war criminal and then provide precious little details – if any? Please, if you want anyone to take you seriously you should provide some tough specific questions for which Agim Ceku has no answers.

3.

You wrote that ‘Ceku is still in Bulgaria but should be heading back to Serbia soon.’ I take it you meant Kosovo.

4.

Finally, a revealing detail. This piece appears under the heading of terrorism. What does this have to do with terrorism? Is it because you’re adopting the view of the Serbian authorities that the war in Kosovo was a ‘war on terror?’ No conspiracy. I am not accusing you of being pro-Serb or anti-Albanian/anti-Croatian. Nonetheless, I am still curious to know why use the heading of ‘terrorism?’

When it comes to Kosovo and Metohija, no matter they were guerrilla army they must follow the rules of war according to Geneva’s conventions and Protocols added to these conventions, especially Protocol II which is covering civil wars and civilians in the first place. He was commanding officer and he knew for those crimes and done nothing to stop them. Jon, you are right about the sentence “Anything you say about Ceku, you could also say about Milosevic or Karadzic.” but tell me, why were Milosevic and Karadzic in Hague and he is not? Double standards, my friend, double standards and if you are a “friend” of US and other states with big influence in the world AKA if you obey to their demands and follow their orders and doing everything what is in their interest, you are free to do whatever you want, even to commit war crimes and genocide of worst kind. Also, the most important reason why he won’t be extra dict to Serbia is because Albanians were “victims” while Serbs were aggressors on their own soil and in case Ceku is extradicted to Serbia that would be a big slap across US and EU faces for proving that there were no genocide committed against Albanians on Kosovo and Metohija. Bear in mind that from “100.000 missing, feared killed Albanians” the number felt on around 2000 victims including Albanians, Serbs, Gipsies, Turks, Egyptians, Jews, Montenegrins, Croats, Bosnian Muslims during more than one year rebellion (only during 78 days of bombing there was more than 3500 of killed civilians on all sides). I spit on EU and US and so called international laws…

And, you really need to get rid of the “I’m better than you and whoever does not agree with my ultrabiased views is a moron” mentality.
I am not greek for instance, but I see no reason to accomodate a small brainwashed minority, both in land and in population who want to claim the name of a whole area and to do so have to invent a whole new fictional history and ask the world to subscribe to it.
Plus you cannot speak on behalf of the whole world. Did you ask them, or did they appoint you to represent them?

The Bulgarians arrested Agim Ceku last week! But then, after a couple of days, they let him go. Serbia is upset.

Who is Agim Ceku, and why should you care?

Well, Agim Ceku is a very important Kosovar Albanian. He was an officer in the Yugoslav army a…