U.N. Tribunal Clears Serbia's Ex-President
Former president Milan Milutinovic was acquitted; five other senior Serbian officials were convicted.
(International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia Via Reuters)
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Friday, February 27, 2009
THE HAGUE, Feb. 26 -- U.N. judges on Thursday acquitted former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic of ordering a deadly campaign of terror against Kosovo Albanians in 1999, saying he had no role in what they ruled was a criminal plot to drive ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ordered Milutinovic released from custody, but it convicted five other senior civilian and military Serbian officials and gave them prison sentences of between 15 and 22 years. It was the court's first judgment establishing widespread Serbian crimes in Kosovo.
Milutinovic's acquittal was a blow to prosecutors, who three years ago lost their chance of convicting former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic of similar crimes when he died of a heart attack before his trial ended.
In what amounted to a guilty verdict for Milosevic, presiding judge Iain Bonomy of Scotland said Milosevic directed the Serbian troops and military police who carried out a campaign of murder, rape and deportations that forced nearly 800,000 ethnic Albanians to flee Kosovo before NATO airstrikes prompted a Serbian withdrawal in mid-1999.
"In practice, it was Milosevic, sometimes termed the 'Supreme Commander,' who exercised actual command authority," Bonomy said.
The court ruled that the campaign was led by Milosevic and that Milutinovic had no role.
The five convicted of involvement in the campaign were former Yugoslav deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic, ex-Yugoslav army chief of staff Dragoljub Ojdanic, former army generals Nebojsa Pavkovic and Vladimir Lazarevic, and Serbian police Gen. Sreten Lukic.
Sainovic, Pavkovic and Lukic were found guilty of deportation, forcible transfer, murder and persecution, and each was given a 22-year prison sentence. Ojdanic and Lazarevic were convicted of deportation and forcible transfer of civilians but acquitted of murder and persecution. They each got 15 years.
Rasim Ljajic, the Serbian official in charge of ties with the tribunal, said the verdicts will "add to anti-Hague sentiments" in Serbia.
Ljajic said that Serbs would contrast the convictions with the acquittal of former Kosovo premier Ramush Haradinaj and that the rulings would "increase the impression of the Hague tribunal's double standards."
The tribunal has indicted 161 suspects, most of them Serbs, and wrapped up cases against 116 of them.
