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CFIVA News
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INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER STEERS KOSOVA TO INDEPENDENCE Saturday, March 1, 2008 As the formerly autonomous province of Kosova achieved full independence and international recognition in February, we took a look at it's outgoing Prime Minister, Mr Agim Ceku recently replaced by Hashim Thaci, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosova and the part he has played in the history of this region. Born near Pec in Kosova in 1960, he attended the military academies in Belgrade and Zadar upon joining the Federal Yugo Army (JNA). When Milosevic launched his attacks against Slovenia and Croatia because those republics would not agree to allow tanks to be brought onto the streets of Pristina, Ceku like many ethnic Albanians deserted from the JNA and joined the fledgling Croatian National Guard where he was commissioned as an officer of artillery. He commanded the Velebit artillery in the operation that successfully recaptured the Maslenica area in early 1993 which had until then virtually cut Croatia in two. He was wounded in the 1993 Medak Operation and was later decorated by the Croatian government. In August 1995 he also participated in Operation Storm and pursued the fleeing Serb army through western Bosnia in a joint offensive with the Armija BiH, Operation Maestral. After the war President Tudjman appointed him commander of the Fifth Military District (Rijeka). When the Serbs under Milosevic began murdering the Albanians of Kosova in 1998, Ceku took early retirement from the Croatian Army and returned to his homeland, where he assumed command of the UCK, the Kosova Liberation Army. Under his leadership the UCK scored a number of successes against occupying Serb forces and chetnik paramilitary groups. Following liberation by NATO troops he was placed in command of the new Kosova Protection Corps. The Serbs regard him as a war criminal and he has been arrested twice as a result of Interpol arrest warrants, once in Slovenia and once in Hungary but under pressure from the UN was quickly released. He was sworn in as Kosovan Prime Minister in March 2006 and undertook to lead Kosova to full independence whilst guaranteeing the rights of the ethnic Serb minority. Whilst in office he has been praised by the UN for his improvements in government and racial tolerance. Ceku is married to his Croatian wife Dragica who is from Zadar and they have three children.
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