Three Kosovo Albanians jailed for war crimes

Three Kosovo Albanians jailed for war crimes
Agence France Presse (English) - August 11, 2006 Friday 9:43 AM GMT

PRISTINA, Serbia, Aug 11 2006 - Three ethnic Albanians were sentenced to seven-year jail terms for war crimes committed during Kosovo's 1998-1999 conflict, the United Nations said Friday.

Selim Krasniqi, Agron Krasniqi and Bedri Zyberaj, former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel force that fought Serbian forces during the war, were found guilty of detaining and beating fellow Albanians, said the justice department of the UN mission in Kosovo.

"The panel of international judges carefully considered the evidence and found the three defendants guilty of the war crime of inhumane treatment, which consisted of detaining and beating fellow Kosovo Albanians whom they believed to be collaborating with Serbian authorities," it said in a statement.

The crimes were committed between June and September 1998, when members of the KLA organised and ran a detention centre in the basement of a school building in the central Kosovo village of Drenovac.

Selim Krasniqi and Zyberaj were also senior officials of Kosovo Protection Corps, an emergency service formed after the KLA was demilitarised at the end of the conflict.

A fourth defendant, Islam Gashi, was acquitted, while charges were withdrawn against two others, Isuf Gashi and Xhavit Elshani due to a lack of evidence, said the UN statement.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since June 1999, after the alliance's bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces over a crackdown against separatist Albanian rebels.

The future status of the disputed province, which technically remains a Serbian province, is being decided in UN-backed talks due to be completed by the year's end.