Kosovo verdict: Your views

Serbian ex-President Milan Milutinovic has been acquitted on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo by a UN war crimes tribunal.

Five former top Serbian officials were found guilty on some or all of the charges relating to the 1990s conflict. Their sentences range from 15 to 22 years.

It was the court's first ruling on alleged crimes committed by Serbian forces in the breakaway region.

BBC News website readers around the world have been sending us their views.

I am one of nearly a million deportees who fled Kosovo from Serbian military and paramilitary horrors. The responsibility has to fall on someone and when thousands are killed and many are still missing, leadership has to be held accountable. You can twist things any way you want, in the end responsibility is assigned to key individuals who today got what they deserve.
Flamur, Gjakova, Kosovo currently in Canada

I am happy to have witnessed this day when a Serbian person is "cleared of all charges." My people have been accused of the instabilities in the Balkan region for decades!
Milica Janic, Columbus, Ohio

This decision is ominous for the Albanian people. If it were up to me, I'd have called on all Albanians in Kosovo to stop all co-operation with The Hague tribunal.
Naim Havolli, Pristina, Kosovo

The right decision from the tribunal. Why? I was a teenager in the early 90s belonging to an ethnic minority there. These political leaders ruined my and many other people's future, not to mention the fear and the uncertainty - in terms of ethnicity - that they caused to people like me. I just can hail the judgement.
Szabolcs Ozsvar, Ada, Serbia

I think it is wrong. Judicial practice should not result in the executioners being convicted whilst those who gave the orders are acquitted.
Ismet Shabani, Pristina, Kosovo

Comparing these verdicts to the Nuremberg Trials one would think that what happened in Kosovo during 1998-99 was a pub brawl gone awry, and not a full scale, carefully planned war to commit genocide. If Mr Milutinovic was a figurehead and had no real power as Serbian president, then why did he not resign from the post knowing what genocides the Serbian/Yugoslavian government was committing? Why did he never apologise to Kosovo Albanian people after the war? Judging by the reaction of the majority of the Serbian people towards these crimes, one is led to believe that there is no remorse or desire to accept guilt and seek a way forward towards reconciliation.
Blerim, Phoenix, AZ

I think this is a good day for innocent Albanian victims of the Milosevic regime. Unfortunately the innocent Serbian victims and those 200,000 Serbs who were expelled from Kosovo will not live to see their executors being convicted.
Ivan, Belgrade, Serbia

This was not a just verdict by The Hague international tribunal. The former president of Serbia, Milan Milutinovic, ought to have been the first to be convicted of the brutal acts and the genocide carried out in Kosovo.
Fitim Mexhauni, Pristina, Kosovo

The UN court is a kangaroo court, a Nato lynch mob. All these people did was to protect their country from the real criminals, Nato, Blair and Clinton. Nato can only dream about having officers of the calibre of Pavkovic, a real hero!
N Brajkovich, Warrington, UK

How many Albanian officials from Kosovo were taken to the Hague and tried for crimes against humanity? Or does the West so obviously support only the Albanian plight? The world has closed its eyes on what the Kosovo Albanians did to the Serbian population of Kosovo and helped the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo.
Mira Radojevic, London

The Hague tribunal has got it wrong. Milutinovic ought to have been convicted, too, as he is also responsible for a lot of crimes committed in Kosovo.
Denis Elshani, Pristina, Kosovo

Agreeing with the fact that war criminals should be accused, but not only from one side. Every war has two sides. This tribunal has also two sides of justice.
Nikola Nivkovic, New York, USA

Finally justice for Kosovo. Even though I'm not happy that the ex-Serbian President has been released. However, this verdict shows that Kosovo independence was the right thing to happen.
Fatos Kosovo, Peja

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version