By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA, Serbia, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, recalled to The Hague to be tried for war crimes, urged Kosovo Albanians on Friday not to destroy their prospects of independence from Serbia through impatience. "It is difficult to build something, but it's easy to destroy it," said the stocky ethnic Albanian former guerrilla commander, whose trial starts on March 5. "We have a duty to make Kosovo a state we can be proud of, and where everyone will feel at home," he said after meeting Prime Minister Agim Ceku and U.N. governor Joachim Ruecker. All three men, plus the NATO peacekeeping commander Lieutenant-General Roland Kather, are concerned about the risk of extremist violence or popular unrest if Kosovo's bid for statehood is delayed or thwarted at the last minute. Haradinaj has earned a reputation for being able to keep the lid on in Kosovo at times of tension. He is a regular on the diplomatic circuit in the United Nations-run territory, but media appearances are strictly limited under the terms of his pre-trial release from the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. As Haradinaj returns to the court on Monday, Serbs and Kosovo Albanians will sit down to a second week of final talks in Vienna on a U.N. plan for Kosovo independence. At a rare news conference, he called for calm, echoing Western concern at the mood among the 90-percent Albanian majority. Many Albanians are angry at the plan's restrictions on sovereignty and the postponement of the decision beyond 2006 by Western powers anxious to limit the fallout in Serbia. Two people died on Feb. 10 in clashes between police and Albanians protesting against the plan's provisions for EU supervision and self-government for the Serb minority. Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombed to drive out Serb forces accused of killing and expelling civilians in a two-year war with guerrillas led by, among others, Haradinaj and Ceku. Haradinaj was indicted in March 2005 when prime minister, charged with murder, rape and torture of Serbs, Roma and ethnic Albanians accused of collaborating with Serb forces. He resigned and surrendered for trial in The Hague. But analysts say he remains the most influential figure behind the coalition government and is credited with keeping Albanian tempers largely in check. The plan drafted by U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari offers Kosovo independence in all but name, under European Union supervision. It needs U.N. Security Council approval. Ahtisaari hopes to wrap up talks and send his final plan to the U.N. Security Council by late March.
