Serbs frustrated, Kosovars elated as former Kosovo PM acquitted of war crimes
(Read article summary)The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia acquitted Ramush Haradinaj of six counts of crimes involving the murder and torture of Serbs and non-Albanians in the '90s.
Kosovars celebrated and Serbian media and officials slammed a decision today by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal at The Hague to acquit former Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj of war crimes committed during the 1990s.
Agence France-Presse reports that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) acquitted Mr. Haradinaj and his lieutenant Idriz Balaj of six counts of crimes involving the murder and torture of Serbs and non-Albanians during the war in the Balkans in 1998 and 1999. Another officer, Lahi Brahimaj, was acquitted of four similar counts. The court, presided over by Judge Bakone Justice Moloto, said that despite the accusations, prosecutors failed to prove that the three men were involved in a "joint criminal enterprise" to ethnically cleanse Serbs.
In his ruling, the judge singled out the prosecutors' witnesses as unreliable.
Moloto said that one witness may not have been in the Jablanica detention camp where alleged abuses took place and "may have told what he heard from others."
"There is no credible evidence that Haradinaj was even aware of the crimes committed at Jablanica," Moloto said.
