By Fatos Bytyci
PRISTINA, March 17 (Reuters) - The European Union police and justice mission (EULEX) said on Thursday it has issued an arrest warrant for a member of the Kosovo parliament from the ruling party on suspicion of committing war crimes during the 1999 war.
Fatmir Limaj, who is a Kosovo member of parliament and former minister, was acquitted by The Hague war crimes tribunal in 2005 two years after he was indicted for similar charges.
Limaj said he was ready to give up immunity as a member of parliament and "cooperate with the justice."
Limaj and nine other individuals arrested on Wednesday on the same charges are ethnic Albanians and ex-members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which fought Serb forces during the 1998-99 war.
"The charges against these individuals relate to murder, torture and violations of body integrity and the health of Kosovo Albanian and Serb civilians and prisoners of war in the area of Klecka in 1999," EULEX said in a statement.
Limaj, an ally of Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, was a key figure in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
Former KLA fighters are seen as liberators by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and many state institutions and individuals have condemned the arrests.
In a rare statement Kosovo's government said it "expresses concern about recent actions of EULEX."
The EULEX mission is mainly a monitoring team helping the young country to enhance the rule of law but it has some executive powers in cases such as war crimes, corruption and organised crime.
Kosovo's former prime minister, Ramush Haradinaj, is on trial for war crimes at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. His trial is expected to resume this year.
More than 10,000 civilians, overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians, were killed in the 1998-99 war.
Another 800,000 Albanians were forced to leave their homes in Serbia's former province during the conflict, which prompted NATO bombing of Serbia and ended with the United Nations taking control of Kosovo in 1999.
The mission has also started investigating a Council of Europe report that accused members of the KLA of carrying out abductions, gun- and drug-running and trafficking in body parts from ethnic Serbs in the late 1990s.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and so far is recognised by 75 United Nations members including the United States and most of the EU countries. Russia, China and many other countries do not recognise Kosovo. (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci)
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