Former Serb president cleared of Kosovo crimes
By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Writer Mike Corder, Associated Press Writer – 5 mins ago THE HAGUE, Netherlands – U.N. judges acquitted former Serb President Milan Milutinovic on Thursday of ordering a deadly campaign of terror by Serb forces against Kosovo Albanians in 1999. But the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicted five other senior Serbs and gave them prison sentences of between 15 and 22 years in the court's first judgment for Serb crimes in Kosovo. Milutinovic's acquittal was a blow to prosecutors who three years ago failed to convict former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of similar crimes because he died of a heart attack before his trial ended. In what was as close to a guilty verdict for Milosevic himself as the court has ever come, presiding judge Iain Bonomy of Scotland said Milosevic was the most powerful commander of Serb 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 forced a Serb withdrawal in mid-1999. "In practice, it was Milosevic, sometimes termed the 'Supreme Commander' who exercised actual command authority over the (Serb army) during the NATO campaign," Bonomy said. The three-judge panel convicted five other leaders of involvement in the campaign; 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 charges of deportation, forcible transfer, murder and persecution and each given 22-year prison sentences. Ojdanic and Lazarevic were convicted of deportation and forcible transfer of civilians but acquitted of murder and persecution. They each got 15 years.
