EU Police Arrest Four Kosovo Serbs For War Crimes

PRISTINA (Reuters) -- European Union police in Kosovo have arrested four Kosovo Serbs suspected of committing war crimes, the EU police and justice mission said.

A spokeswoman for the mission, EULEX, said the suspects had been arrested on the orders of an EULEX prosecutor near the town of Gnjilane in eastern Kosovo, but gave no further details.

An estimated 8,000 to 12,000 civilians were killed in Kosovo in 1998-99, the great majority Albanians, as Serb forces tried to suppress a separatist guerrilla insurgency, and were then forced to leave Kosovo by a NATO bombing campaign.

Shortly after the bombing began, more than 800,000 Albanians fled or were driven from their homes.

The EULEX force was deployed to Kosovo after it declared independence from Serbia last year, replacing a United Nations mission.