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Kosovo PM resigns following summons from Hague war court

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, a wartime commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), said Friday he has resigned after being called as a suspect before a war crimes court in The Hague. "I received a call by the special court as a suspect and was offered to go as the prime minister or as an ordinary citizen of Kosovo. I chose the latter," Haradinaj told reporters.

Published July 19,2019
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Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj speaks during an interview with journalists in Pristina. [AFP Photo]

Kosovo's prime minister has resigned after being invited for questioning by a Hague-based court investigating crimes against ethnic Serbs during and after the country's 1998-99 war.

Ramush Haradinaj said on Friday he had agreed to be interviewed at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers next week and didn't want to do it as prime minister.

He said he had informed the Cabinet he was stepping down and urged the president to call an early parliamentary election.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers was set up after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe catalogued allegations of widespread war crimes committed by ethnic Albanian members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

The court started questioning some former Kosovo fighters this year. Haradinaj was one of the top KLA commanders during the war.