Former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic returned to Serbia on February 27 2009 from the Netherlands, a day after The Hague tribunal acquitted him of charges of war crimes against Kosovo Albanians in 1999, international and Serbian news agencies reported.

The Hague Court sentenced five other former political, military and police officials to 15 to 22 years in prison for taking part in a "joint criminal venture."

Judge Iain Bonomy's chamber convicted former Yugoslav deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic (60), Yugoslav army third army commander Nebojsa Pavkovic (62), and police chief of staff in Kosovo Sreten Lukic (55) to 22 years of prison, Serbian news agency Beta said.

The verdict named Sainovic, Pavkovic and Lukic as crucial participants in the deportation of several hundred thousand Kosovo Albanians between March and June 1999, which had the aim - according to the prosecution - "to change the ethnic balance in order to consolidate Serbian control" of Kosovo.

They were found guilty of all five counts of the indictment - forced displacement, deportation, murders, and a forced transfer of Kosovo Albanians.

Generals Dragoljub Ojdanic (67) and Vladimir Lazarevic (59) were given 15 years in prison for "helping and supporting" the crimes, but with no intention of committing a mass displacement of Albanians. They were found guilty of helping and supporting forced displacement and deportation, that is, of two out of five counts brought by the prosecution.

The court said that Milutinovic was acquitted because a lack of evidence that he had "significantly contributed to the joint crimes," considering that he had no direct control over the Yugoslav army and Serbian police forces.

Serbian news website B92 said that a news conference announced ahead of Milutinovic’s arrival was cancelled at Nikola Tesla airport in Belgrade on February 27.

The former president briefly addressed a throng of reporters and cameramen to say that he was grateful to all who believed in his innocence, that he was tired, but also pleased to have been cleared of the charges against him.

"I am satisfied that I have returned to my Serbia and my Belgrade," were his first words to the journalists gathered at the airport, B92 said.

The BBC said that there were no big celebrations in the Serbian capital after Milutinovic’s acquittal by the UN tribunal in the Hague on February 26.

"Most people here believe that the ex-president was not guilty," the BBC said.

The BBC quoted Vojislav, a Belgrade businessman, as saying: ''Milan Milutinovic was like a puppet, a puppet of [late Yugoslav President] Slobodan Milosevic. Every decision he made, we here knew that it was the decision of Milosevic".