More Kosovo

So i was searching the interent to find more information about kosovo, and I found this article very interesting.

THE United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague has acquitted a former commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army of all charges of war crimes in a decision that could inflame anti-Kosovo sentiment in Serbia weeks after Kosovo declared independence.
Ramush Haradinaj, who briefly served as prime minister of Kosovo three years ago, was found not guilty of the murder, persecution, rape and torture of Kosovo Serb civilians and some ethnic Albanians.
The crimes were said to have been carried out by men under his command in 1998, when the rebels fought to free their largely ethnic Albanian region from Serbian rule.
Another rebel commander, Idriz Balaj, was also acquitted, while a third defendant, Lahi Brahimaj, was sentenced to six years in prison for torture and cruel treatment of prisoners.
The two men are expected to receive heroes' welcomes on their return home.
In summarising the verdict, the judges said the trial had many shortcomings, including vague evidence and widespread fear among witnesses, suggesting the full version of events had not been told.
The full judgment is not yet available, but in their summary, the judges gave weight to evident intimidation of witnesses, stressing that although the court heard almost 100 witnesses, they had great difficulty in getting many to testify freely. They said they granted 34 witnesses permission to hide their identities, that 18 were subpoenaed because they refused to testify and that others said they dared not talk once they were in court.
The case against Mr Haradinaj was fraught with difficulties from the start. Western diplomats tried to dissuade the former chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, from an indictment of Mr Haradinaj, arguing that he was a respected political leader who played a necessary and important role in stabilising Kosovo.
Within the prosecutor's office, some lawyers also warned from the start that the case against Mr Haradinaj was weak because it would be difficult to link him to the crimes.
Prosecutors complained repeatedly about pressure on the witnesses, saying that it had been greater than in any other trial at the tribunal.
Those most afraid, prosecutors said, were former fellow rebel fighters who had been expected to testify as insiders. At least three designated witnesses were killed before the trial, prosecutors said.
Last November, the trial ground to a halt when the lawyers for all three accused unexpectedly announced they would not call any witnesses because they considered the prosecution case so weak.
For Serbs, the acquittal of two of the former rebel commanders, whose forces were backed and supported by the West, is likely to be viewed as one more insult.
Kosovo has long been portrayed as a victim of Serbia. Only one other case at the tribunal has focused on abuses and killings by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters, although human rights groups have documented numerous killings and instances of mistreatment of those not siding with the rebels.
Oliver Ivanovic, who represents Kosovo Serbs, told the FoNet news agency in Belgrade that the acquittals would make it more difficult to demand that the Serbian Government arrest Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. The two men, wartime Bosnian Serb leaders, remain fugitives almost 10 years after the war ended.
After Mr Haradinaj surrendered to the court, in 2005, he was allowed to return to Kosovo to await his trial. Much to the frustration of Ms Del Ponte, the court gave him permission to play a limited political role at home, a privilege granted to no other detainee.