Operation Horseshoe - War Crime Trials

War Crime Trials

The forces of the FRY and Serbia, have in a systematic manner, forcibly expelled and internally displaced hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians from their homes across the entire province of Kosovo. To facilitate these expulsions and displacements, the forces of the FRY and Serbia have intentionally created an atmosphere of fear and oppression through the use of force, threats of force, and acts of violence.

— War Crimes Indictment against Milosevic and others

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia charged Slobodan Milosevic and other Yugoslav officials with crimes against humanity including murder, forcible population transfer, deportation and persecution of Kosovo civilians:

• Slobodan Milošević, President of Yugoslavia and Supreme Commander of the Yugoslav Army - died in 2006 during trial.
• Dragoljub Ojdanić, Chief of General Staff - sentenced to 15 years in prison.
• Nebojša Pavković, Commander of Third Army, which was responsible for Kosovo - sentenced to 22 years in prison.
• Vladimir Lazarević, Commander of the Pristina Corps of Third Army - sentenced to 15 years in prison.
• Vlajko Stojiljković, Interior Minister and Commander of the Serbian police - committed suicide in 2002, after the adoption of a law on cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.
• Sreten Lukić, Chief of Staff of the Serbian Police in Kosovo - sentenced to 22 years in prison.
• Nikola Šainović, Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia - sentenced to 22 years in prison.
• Milan Milutinović, President of the Republic of Serbia - acquitted.

Presiding Judge Iain Bonomy was imposing sentence said that "deliberate actions of these forces during the campaign provoked the departure of at least 700,000 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo in the short period from late March to early June 1999."