War criminal or role model? It's a thin line in Serbia

Serbian General Vladimir Lazarevic (R) is seen during his initial appearance at the U.N. War crimes tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands, February 7, 2005. REUTERS

LJUBLJANA/BELGRADE (Reuters) - In 2009, Serbian general Vladimir Lazarevic was convicted by a U.N. court of war crimes over the forced deportation of more than 700,000 ethnic Albanians during the 1989-99 Kosovo war.

The squat, bespectacled Lazarevic was one of the chief executors of a systematic effort to empty the then-Serbian province of ethnic Albanian civilians and raze their homes in the last bloody chapter in the collapse of Yugoslavia.