Serbian police general guilty of Kosovo war crimes

Wednesday February 23, 2011 09:59:48 PM, DPA

The Hague: The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Wednesday sentenced Serbian police general Vlastimir Djordjevic to 27 years in prison for war crimes in the Kosovo conflict.

Djordjevic, 62, was found guilty of persecution on racial grounds, the forcible deportation of 800,000 Kosovo Albanians, inhumane acts, and the murder of at least 724 people by forces under his control.

He was the head of Serbia's police forces during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

The court ruled that Djordjevic was a part of a joint criminal enterprise, led by then-Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, aimed at altering the ethnic balance in Kosovo to the detriment of the majority Kosovo Albanians.

His crimes include the murder of Albanian civilians, their expulsion from their homes and villages, and the torching of their property and shrines.

The forces commanded by Djordjevic were also involved in burying hundreds of murdered civilians in mass graves in an effort to hide the atrocities, the court found.

Djordjevic was charged in 2003 along with other high-ranking officials, but was tried separately because he was captured only in 2007.

In 2009, the ICTY sentenced the others -- former Yugoslav deputy premier Nikola Sainovic, army generals Dragoljub Ojdanic, Nebojsa Pavkovic and Vladimir Lazarevic, and police general Sreten Lukic -- to between 15 and 22 years in prison.
 

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