(4 Apr 2008) SHOTLIST
1. Wide pan of ethnic Albanians waiting at Pristina airport for arrival of former Prime Minister of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, who has been cleared of war crimes
2. Various of traditional dance
3. Ethnic Albanians with flags
4. Plane taxiing on runway
5. Haradinaj leaving plane
6. Haradinaj being greeted by supporters
7. Cutaway of flags
8. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) Ramush Haradinaj, former Prime Minister of Kosovo:
"The court ruling proves that I am innocent and that our war was untainted."
9. Car carrying Haradinaj leaving
10. Street outside Haradinaj's private family home
11. Haradinaj arriving at home and being greeted by family members
12. Cutaway of faimliy members
13. Haradinaj holding his daughter
14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ramush Haradinaj, former Prime Minister of Kosovo:
"It's a country that we have to build together. It's a life that we have to built together. And a country of opportunities and a life of opportunities for all of us. This is my position and this is my aim. And this is what continuously I say to my Serb colleagues and not only to them but to all people of Kosovo."
15. Various of Haradinaj with friends in his house
STORYLINE
Kosovo's former prime minister returned to a hero's welcome on Friday after a UN court acquitted him of murdering and torturing Serbs.
Ramush Haradinaj was greeted by thousands of ethnic Albanians at the Pristina airport, many dressed in national costumes, others dancing and playing traditional instruments.
"The court ruling proves that I am innocent and that our war was untainted," Haradinaj told the Associated Press moments after landing in Kosovo.
He came back home as the leader of an opposition party in the newly independent Kosovo.
His party slid from power in his absence.
The 39-year-old Haradinaj will stop briefly in Pristina before going on to his native village of Glodjane, in western Kosovo, where he's to broadcast a television address.
He was commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army during the 1998-99 war. The U.N. war crimes court for former Yugoslavia in the Hague acquitted him Thursday of 37 counts of murder, torture and rape.
But, Serbian officials say his release increases ethnic tensions and diminishes chances of arresting top Serb fugitives Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.
Hardline nationalists cited Haradinaj's release to demand that Serbia halt any cooperation with the Netherlands-based court.
Karadzic and Mladic are both wanted on genocide charges for orchestrating the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica and other war crimes during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. The two remain at large, despite huge international pressure on Serbia to arrest them.
Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the U.N. war crimes court for former Yugoslavia has lost credibility with the verdict, and challenged the European Union to drop its insistence that Serbia arrest the two genocide suspects before it can establish closer ties with the bloc.
In a harshly worded statement, nationalist premier Kostunica said the tribunal "made a bleak decision" to clear Haradinaj of war crimes charges. Kostunica added that "it would be necessary to hear the EU position about this mockery of justice."
Pro-Western Serbian President Boris Tadic said that Haradinaj's acquittal "does not bring justice and does not encourage the Serbs and other non-Albanians to trust they will have a safe and calm life in Kosovo in the future."
The judges dismissed much of the evidence presented by the prosecution as "vague, inconclusive or nonexistent."
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