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Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004

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  Their arrest in February 2003 set off protests in Kosovo's capital Pristina, where many ethnic Albanians view them as heroes in a war for independence. But there was little public reaction to the start of the trial, which was televised.

However, the trial may help stem Serb criticism of the United Nations court. Many Serbs have accused the court of being prejudiced against them, saying few Muslims have been indicted for alleged crimes in the wars during the disintegration of Yugoslavia.

"There is a widely held perception among the Serbian public that the tribunal has been singling out Serbs for prosecution and that the few investigations against Croats and Muslims involved crimes against each other's populations, not against Serbs," William Dunlap, professor of law at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, said in comments e-mailed to the Associated Press.

In opening statements, prosecutor Andrew Cayley promised that members of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA, would testify and "confirm either partly or fully a number of critical elements of this case."

The KLA formed to resist Serb dominance in Kosovo. Limaj was a senior commander in the group, while Musliu and Bala were his subordinates.

The indictment states they're accused of overseeing crimes at the Lapusnik Prison Camp, where at least 35 Serbs and Albanians were held in inhumane conditions and routinely subjected to beatings and torture.

In addition, Limaj was accused of ordering _ and Bala of carrying out _ the killing of 10 Albanian civilians in a forest clearing in the Berisa mountains in July 1998. Bala and Limaj are both charged with 10 counts of war crimes, and Musliu with eight.

Limaj's defense lawyer, Michael Mansfield, said Monday that evidence against his client "does not provide reasonable ground for believing he has orchestrated anything."

The war broke out in 1998, when former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic responded to reports of KLA killings of Serb police by sending troops to crack down on the KLA and independence-minded Albanians in Kosovo, a Serbian province.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and NATO since June 1999, when a U.S.-led bombing campaign forced Milosevic to pull his troops out.

Milosevic is also on trial in The Hague on charges over the wars in Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia.

Also Monday, Bosnian Croat special forces soldier Miroslav Bralo postponed entering a plea during his first appearance at the tribunal. Bralo is accused of 21 counts of war crimes against Bosnian Muslims in 1993, including rape and murder.

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