The abrupt resignation of Ramush Haradinaj, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, and his surrender yesterday to the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal in The Hague to face unspecified charges is as unexpected as it is welcome. The former nightclub bouncer in Switzerland, who returned from exile to command rebel Albanian forces fighting the Serbs before and during the 1999 Kosovo war, insists that he is innocent, although the Serbs have separately charged him with 108 alleged war crimes. Even Serbian leaders yesterday welcomed his “responsible act”.

It is also a shrewd political move. By surrendering himself, Mr Haradinaj, 38, hugely increases the pressure on Serbia to extradite to The Hague the many people accused of crimes relating to the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, including the two most wanted men, Radovan Karadjic and Ratko Mladic. The former guerrilla commander has also undercut the charges from UN officials administering Kosovo that, as a wanted former warlord, he is unsuitable to hold political office. If acquitted, a real possibility given the difficulty of proving atrocities in the midst of war, he can return to Kosovo with his standing enhanced. If convicted, his assumption of the martyr’s crown will bolster the faction he heads in the Kosovan parliament.

Mr Haradinaj also knows that as long as an indictment hangs over him, the West will make no effort to accept the Kosovans’ demand for independence. The unresolved political status of this breakaway territory is one of the most vexed issues that the UN and Western peacekeepers have to face. To insist that this territory, 90 per cent Albanian, revert to the sovereignty of the country that so cruelly tried to cleanse it of all Albanians would be unacceptable in the West and prompt another uprising in Kosovo.

To grant it independence, however, before any improvement in the treatment of its embattled 200,000 Serbs, runs counter to the human rights norms laid down by the UN and would sabotage careful Western attempts to reintegrate a suspicious Serbia in the European mainstream. This remains a very volatile region.

The UN is committed to reviewing Kosovo’s status next year. Most members would like simply to delay a decision, in the hope that even more time and the gradual resumption of relations between Serbs and Albanians living side by side will heal some of the bitterness. The more cynical may also hope that the Serb minority will emigrate; in other words, “ethnic cleansing” by implication.

Tensions between the communities remain high, and a year ago nineteen Serbs were killed in three days of violence against that community. There are still 19,000 foreign troops in Kosovo trying to prevent further clashes. They cannot stay indefinitely: the cost alone is prohibitive. It is therefore up to the Kosovan majority to do much more to protect the Serbs and prove a readiness to work together. Only then can independence be contemplated. By surrendering himself, Mr Haradinaj has, hopefully, taken a step in that direction — but not necessarily.