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. With a smile he touched her cheeks but she turned her head and started to cry. She s scared, said Koshi s wife, Florie, 28. 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.