Serbia outraged at acquittal at U.N. war crimes court of former Kosovo prime minister

[CroRadio.net]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/04/news/Serbia-War-Crimes.php

Serbia outraged at acquittal at U.N. war crimes court of former Kosovo
prime minister
The Associated PressPublished: April 4, 2008

BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbian officials said Friday the war crimes
acquittal of a former Kosovo rebel leader will increase tensions in
Kosovo and diminish the chances that top Serb fugitives Ratko Mladic
and Radovan Karadzic will be arrested.

The U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, ruled on Thursday that
there was not enough evidence to convict former Kosovo Prime Minister
Ramush Haradinaj of murder, torture and rape of Serbs and non-
Albanians during the Kosovo war.

The crimes were committed by his rebel Kosovo Liberation Army
soldiers. Haradinaj was exonerated of responsibility and of a
conspiracy to drive ethnic Serbs from Kosovo to seize complete control
for ethnic Albanians.

The judges said much of the evidence was "vague, inconclusive or
nonexistent," but they also acknowledged that many witnesses were too
afraid to testify, even when the court indicted them for contempt. The
prosecution had not yet decided whether to appeal.

Haradinaj was released from a U.N. jail and was to return to Kosovo on
Friday.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17. Belgrade says the
action violated international law and has pledged to retake the
territory one day.

In Serbia, pro-Western and nationalist politicians joined law experts
in condemning the ruling, saying there had been sufficient evidence to
convict Haradinaj, who was one of the most feared rebel leaders of
Kosovo's 1998-99 war.

"The ruling is truly worrisome," Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica
said late Thursday on local Pink television. "It turns out that crime
pays."

Kostunica's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said: "The ruling
is catastrophic and will have numerous political, moral and legal
consequences."

Hardline nationalists cited Haradinaj's release to demand that Serbia
halt any cooperation with the Netherlands-based court.

Some officials said the chances that Serbia will now hand over the two
most wanted Bosnian Serb fugitives -- Karadzic, the wartime political
leader, and Mladic, his military commander -- are now minimal because
no Serbian government could make such a move against the two, who are
still widely regarded as national heroes here.

"Unfortunately, after this, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic will
never end up in the Hague," said Oliver Ivanovic, a moderate Serb
leader from Kosovo.

Karadzic and Mladic are both wanted on genocide charges for
orchestrating the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica and
other war crimes during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. The two remain at
large, despite huge international pressure on Serbia to arrest them.

Serbia's pro-Western leaders have in the past pledged to capture the
two. But they also criticized Haradinaj's acquittal and are considered
unlikely to seek the arrest of the Serb fugitives before parliamentary
elections in May, during which the reformists will face a tough
challenge from the nationalists.

Pro-Western Serbian President Boris Tadic said that Haradinaj's
acquittal "does not bring justice and does not encourage the Serbs and
other non-Albanians to trust they will have a safe and calm life in
Kosovo in the future."

Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic added that "Hardinaj's acquittal
presents a huge blow to stability in the region and will have negative
effect on the reconciliation process."

Serbia's war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, said that the
acquittal is so "outrageous" that the U.N. war crimes tribunal for
former Yugoslavia "is ready for retirement."