Serbia jails soldiers for Kosovo crimes

Serb soldiers have not been held to account before

Three Serb soldiers have been jailed by a Belgrade court for murder committed during the Kosovo conflict last year.

This is the first time that a court in Serbia has cooperated with Unmik (the UN mission in Kosovo) to uncover war crimes

Belgrade-base human rights group

It is the first time that the Yugoslav army has officially acknowledged such crimes.

The conviction came at the end of a month-long trial at a military court in the city of Nis.

Correspondents say it is an indication that the new Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, is serious about coming to terms with the war crimes committed by his countrymen during a decade of conflict in the Balkans.

Soldier's mission

The men - an officer and two reservists - were jailed for the murdering an elderly ethnic Albanian couple in Kosovo.

The three Serbs, who had pleaded not guilty, were given sentences of more than four years each.

Kostunica says Serb must confront crimes committed

The officer, Major Dragisa Petrovic, was jailed for inciting the murder after ordering that all the villagers of Gornja Susica, a village near the Kosovo capital Pristina, be driven out.

The case came to light because another Yugoslav soldier followed up reports of the murder and pushed for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

"This is the first time that a court in Serbia has cooperated with Unmik (the UN mission in Kosovo) to uncover war crimes," said a Belgrade-based human rights group, the Humanitarian Law Fund.

Correspondents say it is unlikely that the trial would have gone ahead if the former President, Slobodan Milosevic, were still in power.

President Kostunica has said that Serbs must confront crimes committed on their side of the war, but has not moved against Mr Milosevic himself, although he has been indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal.