PRISTINA (AFP)--Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu slammed Serbian war crimes trials as a "farce" Friday after a Belgrade court jailed four former police officers, but acquitted three others, over a 1999 Kosovo massacre. 

"These processes in Serbia are a farce," Sejdiu said, while commenting on the verdicts a day before by Serbia's special war crimes court in relation to the killings of 50 Kosovo Albanian civilians. 

"They represent an effort by Serbia to demonstrate to the world that they are undertaking to find third-rate offenders and without a clear verdict for the main culprits," he told reporters. 

The massacre - whose victims included four babies, 10 children, a pregnant woman and a 100-year-old woman - was one of the worst atrocities during Kosovo's 1998-1999 w
It occurred in Suva Reka, a small town about 60 kilometers southwest of Kosovo's capital Pristina, March 26, 1999. 

Of the seven former Serb police who went on trial in October 2006, two were handed the maximum 20-year jail term, while two others were given sentences of 15 and 13 years. 

But among the three acquitted was special police unit commander Radoslav Mitrovic, the most senior officer accused. 

The Kosovo conflict was ended by a three-month North Atlantic Treaty Organization bombing campaign against Serbian forces waging a violent crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanian rebels and their civilian supporters. 

Ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in February 2008. 

It has since been recognized by 58 countries, including the U.S. and most of the European Union, but Serbia, backed by its traditional ally Russia, rejected the move.