Kosovo PM quits over war crimes probe

PRISTINA: 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 he had agreed to be interviewed at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers next week and did not 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 (KLA).The court started questioning some former Kosovo fighters this year. Haradinaj was one of the top KLA commanders during the war.