The New York Times

Thursday, September 21, 2000

Serb Student Sentenced for War Crime

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GNJILANE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- A Serb student was sentenced to 20 years in prison Wednesday for killing ethnic Albanians in the first trial for war crimes committed in Kosovo during the crackdown by Yugoslav forces last year.

Milos Jokic, 21, was found guilty of killing Rexhep Emerllahu, 27, ordering the killing of another ethnic Albanian and of raping an ethnic Albanian woman. He was also found guilty of illegal possession of arms. Jokic had denied the charges.

At the trial which took place in a local court with Kosovo Albanian judges and one French judge, prosecutors leveled a charge of genocide against the student, arguing that a single ethnic group was targeted.

But he was convicted of ``war crimes against civilians,'' and not of genocide, said defense lawyer Zivojin Jokanovic, who said he would appeal the verdict.

``Without any reason, they have sentenced a young boy with the harshest verdict,'' Jokanovic said after the trial. ``This is shameless sentencing in order to satisfy an excited public.''

Emerllahu was killed on May 9, 1999, when returning home to collect food during NATO's 78-day bombardment of Yugoslavia to end Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Residents had fled the village in the face of a Serb crackdown, witnesses said during the trial.

The sentencing came four days before Yugoslav presidential and parliamentary elections, which are also scheduled to be held in Kosovo.

Prosecutors had accused Jokic of running a paramilitary gang that terrorized ethnic Albanians in the village of Vrban, about 40 miles south of the capital Pristina during NATO's bombardment.

The trial, which began in May but was postponed on the opening day after defense lawyers failed to attend, was adjourned in August to allow defense witnesses from the Serb city of Kraljevo to testify.

All but one Serb witness refused to testify in the trial, citing fears for their safety, defense lawyers said.

Jokic was arrested in October in Vitina, a town in the part of Kosovo patrolled by U.S. troops.