Former leader in Kosovo acquitted of war crimes
The United Nations war crime tribunal in The Hague on Thursday acquitted a former commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army of all charges of war crimes in a decision that could inflame anti-Kosovo sentiment in Serbia just weeks after Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.
The commander, Ramush Haradinaj, who also briefly served as prime minister of Kosovo three years ago, was found not guilty of murder, persecution, rape and torture of Kosovo Serb civilians. The crimes were said to have been carried out by men under his command in 1998, when the rebels fought to free their largely ethnic Albanian region from Serbian rule.
The men who were acquitted may return home as early as Friday, and they are expected to be given a hero’s welcome. But in court, in summarizing their verdict, the judges said that the case presented had many flaws. They cited vague evidence and widespread fear among witnesses, suggesting that the full version of events had not been told.
The complete text of the judgment was not available, but in their summary, the judges gave much weight to the fear and the evident intimidation of witnesses. Lawyers said that in no other case before the tribunal had witness intimidation been so widespread.
The judges said that they had serious difficulties in getting many of almost 100 witnesses to testify freely. They said that they had to permit 34 witnesses to hide their identities from the public, that 18 were subpoenaed because they refused to testify and that others said they dared not talk once they were in court.
After Mr. Haradinaj surrendered to the court, in 2005, he was allowed to return to Kosovo to await his trial. Much to the frustration of Ms. Del Ponte, he was treated favorably when the court permitted him to play a limited political role at home, a privilege granted to no other detainee.
This chain of events seems unfortunate. The men who were freed clearly seem guilty of war crimes, even if its guilt by association. The trial itself seems to be fixed if not poorly constructed. How far up does the corruption travel? Perhaps farther then we want to believe
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/world/europe/04kosovo.html?scp=1&sq=war&st=nyt
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