[JURIST] Former Kosovo prime minister Agim Ceku was arrested [press release] in Bulgaria Tuesday at the Macedonian border on Serbian war crimes charges. Ceku is specifically charged by the Serbian Nis District Court with genocide in relation to the murder of 669 Serbs and 18 others during the Kosovo war [JURIST news archive]. Serbian Minister of Justice Snezana Malovic [official profile] has requested the extradition of Ceku from Bulgaria and expects authorities to respond "promptly and positively." At the time of the killings, Ceku was commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army. He has dismissed the charges [BBC report] as being politically motivated, maintaining that the arrest warrant had no legal basis.

Prior to Kosovo's independence, Ceku urged the international community to quickly adopt a UN-supervised independence plan [JURIST report], saying that the Kosovar people's desire for an identity should not be held "hostage" to the opposition. An ethnic-Albanian, Ceku was elected as prime minister in 2006 on a platform of seeking complete independence [BBC report] from Serbia.