Many of the men had been snatched from refugee convoys and hastily tried on terrorism charges related to the 1999 Kosovo Albanian campaign for independence from Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia. The rebellion ended when NATO launched 78 days of air strikes against Yugoslavia and pushed Milosevic's forces out of Kosovo. Milosevic was ousted in October, and the courts of the new pro-democracy government ruled Monday that the sentences of the 143 men should be reviewed. New trials are considered highly unlikely. Demands for the release of these prisoners have long been a rallying point for the province's Albanians, who have argued that there will never be peace in Kosovo until all them are free.
Dozens remain in jail.
Then he spotted her pigtails wrapped in red ribbons. She doesn't know you. Hundreds of others crowded around their relatives, turning the fields around a chicken-processing factory into a jubilant homecoming party. Everywhere, sunburned farmers could be seen creating small circles around pale men kissing their mothers, wives and sisters. Earlier in the day, many of the men complained of appalling prison conditions.