Kosovo former PM acquitted of war crime charges

A United Nations war crimes tribunal on Thursday acquitted Kosovo's former prime minister and two of his former Kosovo Liberation Army comrades for the second time of murdering and torturing Serbs and their supporters in Kosovo's war for independence.

The ruling sets the stage for former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's (pic) return to political life in the deeply divided nation.

The verdict was issued in the UN court's first ever retrial, which was ordered after appeals judges branded the 2008 acquittals of Haradinaj and KLA fighters Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj a "miscarriage of justice" because of widespread intimidation of prosecution witnesses.

Brahimaj was convicted of torture at the first trial and that was not retried, but he has served his sentence and will be released with the others.

Applause rang around the courtroom's public gallery when Presiding Judge Bakone Moloto delivered the verdicts.

Moloto said Serbs and their suspected supporters were beaten at a KLA compound in Kosovo and at least one of them died of his injuries.

However, he said that there was no evidence Haradinaj was involved in the attacks.

In fact, Moloto said, Haradinaj reprimanded one KLA fighter for abusing a Kosovo Albanian man, telling the fighter: "No such thing should happen anymore because this is damaging our cause."

"This judgment, coming after the longest and most exhaustive criminal process ever undertaken in the history of international criminal law is a complete vindication of Mr Haradinaj's innocence," Haradinaj's lawyer, Ben Emmerson, said after the trial.

In Kosovo's capital, Pristina, supporters set off fireworks and honked car horns.

Others danced and clapped as they watched the verdicts on a giant screen.

"I have a lot of emotions but I've never felt better," said Haradin Gervalla, Pristina resident.

The three men were to be released and returned to Kosovo later Thursday.

The acquittals herald a political renaissance for Haradinaj, seen by the West before his 2005 indictment as a unifying force in Kosovo, but could complicate talks between Pristina and Belgrade on Kosovo's future.

"This is great news. Also for reconciliation," said another Pristina resident.

"Mr. Haradinaj, I think, he will also call on all the other communities to join to reconcile with each other and move our region forward, not just Kosovo."

Haradinaj quit as Kosovo's prime minister in 2005 after just 100 days in office when his indictment was announced by the tribunal, but he remains popular at home.

In Kosovo, large posters welcoming him back were hung well before the decision was announced in The Hague.

For Haradinaj's Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, which has been in decline since his trial, the return could herald a new era.

Serbian officials and media had been anticipating for days that Haradinaj would be acquitted less than two weeks after two Croatian generals were cleared of charges of killing and deporting Serbs in a 1995 military blitz, a judgment that sparked rage in Belgrade, where many see the tribunal as anti-Serb.