Ex-rebel leader becomes Kosovo PM

A former rebel commander who was recently was questioned by UN war crimes investigators was elected to be prime minister of Kosovo today.

Parliament in Pristina voted 72 votes to 3 for Ramush Haradinaj, a 36-year-old ethnic Albanian, to head the new government, ignoring concerns that the move could add to the province’s tensions.

Members of the second-biggest party, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, led by another former rebel leader, abstained.

Western officials were concerned about Haradinaj’s election to the post, fearing that he may be indicted for war crimes by a UN tribunal – a development that could destabilise the tense province.

The formation of the new government follows a coalition deal struck nearly two weeks ago between the Democratic League of Kosovo’s President Ibrahim Rugova, the winner of the province’s general elections, and the much smaller Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, led by Haradinaj, which came in third.

Rugova’s party won 45% of the vote, but failed to gain the absolute majority needed to govern alone in this UN run province. The smaller alliance garnered 8%. Rugova was re-elected president during the session.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since June 1999, following a Nato air war that halted a crackdown by Serb forces on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.