PRISTINA - Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has appointed a former guerilla fighter as the newly independent state's first defence minister, his office said Tuesday.
Fehim Mujota had been appointed Ministry for Security Forces by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci , said a statement from Thaci's office.
Mujota, from the ranks of Thaci's Democratic Party of Kosovo, will oversee the establishment of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF), a 2,500-strong formation that is to be trained by NATO.
The party emerged from the Kosovo Liberation Army, the ethnic Albanian separatist guerillas who fought Serbian forces during the territory's 1998-1999 war.
The KSF is to be set up as part of the implementation of UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari's blueprint for Kosovo's "internationally supervised independence."
Mujota's appointment comes less than two months after Kosovo's constitution took effect, opening the way for majority Albanians take over from a nine-year-old United Nations mission under European guidance.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians account for around 90 percent of its two million people, declared independence from Serbia in February and has been recognised by 43 countries including the United States and most of the European Union.
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