War Crimes Charges Target 183 in Army

Military officials said 183 Yugoslav army officers and soldiers have been charged with committing war crimes in Kosovo, and the trials of some of them have already started or taken place.

An officer from the army’s legal branch said more charges are likely. The numbers reflected growing acceptance on the part of the army that its members committed atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo--a province of Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic--during a crackdown in the southern Serbian region that precipitated NATO’s 11-week air war in 1999 against Yugoslavia. The military had previously said that 24 soldiers were facing--or had faced--legal action.