THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The U.N. war crimes tribunal cleared Kosovo's former prime minister on Thursday of all charges of persecuting Serbs in a 1998-99 separatist war, but sentenced his uncle to six years jail for mistreating prisoners.
Ramush Haradinaj, a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) considered a hero by Kosovo Albanians, was acquitted of war crimes and crimes against humanity after judges found prosecutors failed to prove a deliberate campaign to kill and expel Serb civilians from Kosovo.
"This is a verdict that strengthens Kosovo. We endured a difficult liberation struggle that cost many lives. Today we are a free and sovereign nation," Haradinaj said in a statement.
Kosovo's 90 percent Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in February. The United Nations has run the province since 1999 when NATO drove out Serb forces to halt the ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year war against KLA guerrillas.
Belgrade has branded Kosovo's secession as illegal, telling the 120,000-strong Serb minority to boycott its institutions. Serbian officials condemned the Haradinaj acquittal on Thursday.
Haradinaj's uncle, Lahi Brahimaj, a senior KLA figure, was cleared of most charges but convicted for personally taking part in the cruel treatment of a detainee at a camp, and ordering the mistreatment of another, a perceived collaborator.
A third accused, Idriz Balaj, the commander of the KLA's "Black Eagles" special unit, was also cleared of all charges of torture, murder, rape and deportation.
Prosecutors had sought prison sentences of 25 years for 39-year-old Haradinaj and his co-accused.
Haradinaj was the most senior former KLA guerrilla to be indicted over the war. In the Kosovo capital Pristina the sound of car horns, fireworks and gunfire greeted the verdict, while onlookers cheered and clapped in a packed court public gallery.
But the verdict angered Serbia's leaders.
"This is a black day for international justice," said Serbian deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic. "The acquittal is a scandal, a blow to the international justice system."
WITNESS INTIMIDATION
Although the court found that KLA soldiers had committed a large number of crimes alleged in the indictment, it was not convinced that this was part of a wider, deliberate campaign.
"Murders and attacks were not on a scale or of a frequency to conclude that there was an attack on the civilian population," Judge Alphons Orie told the court.
Serbs had fled, judges concluded, for fear of being caught up in the conflict rather than because they were directly targeted. Kosovo Albanians had also fled, they noted.
Judge Orie said witnesses had been intimidated throughout the trial and some eventually refused to testify: "The chamber gained a strong impression that the trial was being held in an atmosphere where witnesses felt unsafe," he said.
This left prosecutors having to rely sometimes on flimsy testimony. Judges branded other evidence by turn vague, inconclusive or non existent.
The prosecution said it would study the ruling before deciding whether to appeal, in particular the weight the judges gave to witness problems, a spokeswoman said.
Haradinaj, a former nightclub bouncer, was prime minister for only a matter of months before he resigned in 2005 after being indicted by the U.N. tribunal. He said on Thursday he told the people of Kosovo they could trust the judicial process.
His defence lawyers said the soldier-turned-politician had fought an honourable war, targeting combatants not civilians.
"It had become clear from the evidence of prosecution witnesses that far from having behaved in a criminal fashion, Mr Haradinaj had at all times acted to prevent wrong-doing and protect civilian lives," defence lawyer Michael O' Reilly said.
Haradinaj's wife, Anita, said her husband planned to return to Kosovo on Friday morning: "This a happy and important day for Kosovo. We will welcome Ramush home to an independent Kosovo," she told Kosovo public television from The Hague.
(Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci, Shaban Buza, Ivana Sekularac, editing by Myra MacDonald for Reuters)
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