High-ranking Kosovo officials arrested for graft

PRISTINA, Serbia, Mar 12 (Reuters) Police in Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province arrested two men for money laundering today, with local media saying charges relate to fundraising for former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, now on trial for war crimes.

Police did not officialy identify the men, saying only that two suspects were arrested and their houses and offices were being searched by police, including those from the United Nations which administers the province.

A police source told Reuters the men were ethnic Albanians, an adviser to current Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku and the director of a local bank.

Haradinaj, a former commander in the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, is on trial at the UN tribunal in The Hague for murder, rape and torture alleged to have been committed by soldiers under his command in the war against Serbian forces in 1998-99.

The fund for his defence collects money through a telephone hotline and is said to total over 10 million dollars so far.

Kosovo, where 90 per cent of the 2 million population are ethnic Albanians, has been run by the UN since NATO intervened in 1999 to stop a Serb crackdown on the Albanian insurgency.

UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari will this month present to the Security Council his proposal for the future of the province, a blueprint that sets out the framework for an independent state under a foreign overseer and European Union police mission.

REUTERS MS KN1825