Serbia returns Haradinaj's Thaci to INTERPOL's list of fugitives

The Kosovo government does not yet have an official stance about warnings from Belgrade for returning the names of many Kosovo citizens to the INTERPOL (International Police) list of persons wanted.

Kosovo's inability to become a member of INTERPOL is seen as an obstacle to cleaning up the list of wanted persons on the basis of Serbia's arrest warrants.

Among those who have been named back on these lists are President Hashim Thaci and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj.

Serbia's Government Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic has made that known.

According to him, the accusations of Serbia's bodies against Kosovo Albanians have already been returned to the INTERPOL system.

On these lists, Stefanovic has underlined, though finding the names, charges against Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj will not be implemented at this stage, due to the positions currently held.

The Serbian minister has said that turning the charges into INTERPOL files followed Serbia's pressure on this institution, demanding that International Rights be respected.

In the Government of Kosovo, they have said they are carefully conveying the situation and that they are collecting the necessary information to come up with an official stance.

Kosovo Security Force First Deputy Chairman for Internal Affairs, Security and Supervision Rexhep Selimi has told Radio Free Europe that Serbia's move is not surprising.

Vetevendosje Movement MP has said that he sees this as Serbia's pressure over Kosovo to release leads in other areas.

“Even restoring names to INTERPOL's lists of many members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, I see even more as a pressure for Kosovo to press through other areas. So we know that Serbia loves the soldiers of the Kosovo Liberation Army in the banks of the accused, but more than that Serbia wants Kosovo to keep under constant pressure, even with these lists in this case”, Selimi has said.

According to him, for these problems not to be repeated indefinitely, Kosovo must become an INTERPOL member as soon as possible.

Kosovo's <x0 think-tanks should work harder to have Kosovo membership in INTERPOL, which is the possibility to happen this year. We too are making our extraordinary contribution from the opposition's position and on the other hand, it would be necessary for Serbia to have another communication approach”, MP Selimi stressed.

Ehat Miftaraj from the Kosovo Institute for Justice has told Radio Free Europe that Serbia has consistently misused its position in INTERPOL to issue international warrants for Kosovo citizens.

“Of course, the crucial role here is the European Union, Brussels, which has almost never taken this issue very seriously, leaving Kosovo citizens in some way at Serbia's mercy, torturing them in many and many cases when the same have been arrested on the basis of these warrants, kept in custody in the European Union states for months, and sometimes years, and then later the same was released, Miftaraj said.

Early last year, incumbent Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj had been arrested by French police on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by Serbia.

Haradinaj was also arrested in Slovenia in 2015, this based arrest, also speaking on Interpol's arrest, issued by Serbia's police in 2006.

And, at the end of last year, Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's name and the names of 17 people had left the INTERPOL list of arrests.

Kosovo is expected to be a member of the world's largest police organisation this year, INTERPOL.