The convictions are the first against the Ethnic Albanian rebel side in the Kosovo conflict.

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) – A court convicted four senior ethnic Albanian rebels and sentenced them to prison Wednesday for atrocities committed during their 1998-1999 war against Yugoslav forces in the province of Kosovo.

It was the first time that the United Nations-administered court had convicted anyone of war crimes from the rebel side in the Kosovo conflict.

The three judges sentenced Rrustem Mustafa and three of his associates to prison terms ranging from five to 17 years for ordering the killings, illegal arrests and torture of fellow ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serb regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

“In the case of each accused, these acts are qualified as the offense of war crimes,” said presiding judge Timothy Clayson of Britain. “No man is above the law.”

An attorney for the men said they would appeal.

Kosovo is a part of Serbia-Montenegro, the successor to Yugoslavia, but has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO air bombing forced an end to a Serb crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanians.

The four senior rebels, using headphones to hear a translation of the judge’s words, listened in silence, but their families sobbed upon hearing the verdicts.

Mustafa, one of the most senior commanders of the now-defunct Kosovo Liberation Army, received a 17-year sentence for ordering the killings of five Albanians, failing to prevent illegal detention and failing to punish rebel soldiers responsible for abuses.

Mustafa commanded the rebels in northern part of Kosovo, a region known as Llap. The three associates served under his command in that zone.

Nazif Mehmeti, the head of the rebels’ police unit, was sentenced to 13 years for conveying orders to kill civilians and making unlawful arrests. The rebels’ intelligence chief, Latif Gashi, was sentenced to 10 years for illegal detention and torture. Naim Kadriu, who headed the rebels’ detention center, received a five-year sentence.

Relatives of the men sobbed as the sentences were announced. Mustafa tried to calm them as he was being escorted out of the temporary court room by heavily armed guards.

“We fought for ourselves, not for them,” he said, referring to the U.N. mission now in charge of administering the province.

He waved with handcuffed hands as he was driven away in an armored car

Gashi’s sister, Nafije, clutching a handkerchief, said the trial was unfair.

“They fought for their own people, for their own country and we will always be proud of what they did,” she said.

AP-ES-07-16-03 1430EDT

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