The United Nations war crimes tribunal has found former Serbian
President Milan Milutinovic not guilty of crimes against humanity
during the Kosovo conflict of the 1990s. But the court in The Hague
sentenced five other government and military officials to terms of up
to 22 years in prison.
The court sentenced former Yugoslav
Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, and
Serbian police General Sreten Lukic to the 22-year terms. It gave
former Yugoslav Army Chief-of-Staff Dragoljub Ojdanic, and General
Vladimir Lazarevic terms of 15 years each.
Prosecutors had
sought 20 years to life in prison for the six, accusing them of having
worked with former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to maintain
Serb control of Kosovo by forcibly deporting thousands of ethnic
Albanians.
The court also convicted some of the five of responsibility for atrocities against ethnic Albanians committed by Serb troops.
The
case was the first trial completed by The Hague tribunal involving
atrocities by Serbian forces as they battled ethnic Albanian
separatists for control of Kosovo, a former Serbian province that
declared independence a year ago.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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