Pristina (Serbia-Montenegro), Oct 28: United
Nations police have arrested five Kosovo Albanians suspected
of committing war crimes during the province's 1998-99 war, a
UN official said today.
"Five Kosovo Albanian men have been arrested under
warrants relating to war crimes," UN Police spokesman Dimitri
Priakhin told reporters.
Local media said the five, who were arrested in
southern Kosovo yesterday, were suspected of kidnapping,
serious bodily harm and the murder of four fellow Albanians in
early 1999.
The five are believed to have been with the ethnic
Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel group that fought a
separatist war against Yugoslavia.
This is the second case of war crimes charges by a
local court against former rebel members.
In July a Kosovo district court found four former
ethnic Albanian rebels guilty of war crimes and sentenced them
to between five and 17 years in prison.
Kosovo has been under UN administration since NATO
bombed rump Yugoslavia -- now Serbia and Montenegro -- to
force the withdrawal of Serb troops in 1999.
Bureau Report
