KOSOVO POLITICAL PARTIES HAIL BEGINNING OF MILOSEVIC TRIAL

PRISTINA, Feb 13 (Hina) - Three leading Kosovo Albanian political parties on Tuesday applauded the start of trial against the former president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic before the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The Democratic Alliance of Kosovo expressed conviction the international community would seriously deal with those who committed crimes against humanity as Milosevic had in Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. The Serb people should apologise to the Albanian, Bosniak and Croat people for committed crimes, while Milosevic, his associates, those who gave and carried out orders, should be given the appropriate punishments, a representative of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Jakup Krasniqi, said. The head of the Alliance for Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, said the start of the trial against Milosevic was a historic day and expressed hope that Milosevic would be given the appropriate sentence for the committed genocide and crimes. The Kosovo Human Rights and Freedoms Protection Committee expressed regret that Milosevic's indictment did not include all the crimes his regime had caused. (hina) lml