Eurasia Press & News
Former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, will likely be the mediator for peace talks in Uganda between the government in Kampala and the Muslim Allied Democratic Forces rebels.
The Allied Democratic Forces, ADF, told the AFP that they chose Haradinaj as their negotiator pick because “he has been through a lot.”
ADF spokesman Assad Mukasa told AFP that Haradinaj, recently acquitted of war crimes charges by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, had experience “of rebels and difficulties.” According to AFP, the government in Kampala has no quarrel with the rebels’ selection for a mediator.
Ramush Haradinaj told Balkan Insight that he couldn’t comment or confirm anything yet.
“I cannot elaborate on this issue for the time being,” Haradinaj told Balkan Insight over the phone.
The Uganda Muslims’ rebellion began in the early 1990s and intensified between 1996 and 2001, forcing tens of thousands of people in the western Rwenzori region to flee their homes. ADF says it is fighting for equal rights for Muslims in the East African country.
After the end of the conflict, Haradinaj became deputy commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps, and later founder and president of Alliance for Future of Kosovo, AAK. In 2004 he became Prime Minister but resigned after 100 days in office to surrender for trial at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. In April 2008 he was acquitted of torture, murder, rape and deportation and returned to Kosovo to a hero’s welcome.
