Serbian prosecutors have indicted 17 former ethnic Albanian guerrillafighters for war crimes allegedly committed against civilians in Kosovoimmediately after the 1998-99 war in the breakaway province.

Friday'sindictment charges the former members of the Kosovo Liberation Armywith killing at least 52 Serbs, Roma and Albanian civilians.

Themen, eight of whom are still at large, were also charged with raping alarge number of women as well as illegal detention, mutilation, tortureand looting.

The alleged war crimes took place in threelocations near the eastern town of Gnjilane with the aim of forcingSerbs who remained after the war out of Kosovo, where 90 percent of thepopulation of two million is ethnic Albanian.

NATO sentpeacekeepers to Kosovo in 1999 under a United Nations mandate, after a78-day alliance bombing campaign forced Serbian and Yugoslav securityforces from the area.

The alleged attacks against Serb civilians took place after that deployment, between June and September of 1999.

Kosovo'sethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia in February2008. Serbia, backed by its traditional ally Russia, has refused torecognize the declaration and insists that it still maintainssovereignty over Kosovo.


Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.