(Adds details, quotes) By Alexandra Hudson THE HAGUE, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The Appeals Chamber of the U.N. war crimes tribunal cleared two Kosovo Albanians of war crimes for the second time on Thursday, upholding their 2005 acquittal on charges of torture, murder and cruel treatment. Appeals judges agreed with an earlier ruling that Fatmir Limaj, 36, a senior Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) member, was not guilty of murder, torture and inhumane acts during the 1998-99 conflict in the southern Serbian province. They also upheld the acquittal of Isak Musliu, 36, another member of the now disbanded KLA, of the same crimes. "The Appeals Chamber finds that the Trial Chamber reasonably found that Fatmir Limaj does not incur criminal responsibility for any of the offences charged in the indictment," Judge Fausto Pocar said. The Appeals Chamber upheld the conviction and sentence of a third man, Haradin Bala, a former prison camp guard, found guilty of murder, torture and cruelty and sentenced to 13 years. During the original trial, Limaj and Musliu were cleared of all charges of abducting and murdering Serb civilians as well as Albanians suspected of collaborating with Serb authorities while Kosovo was in the grip of a separatist insurgency. The province has been administered by the United Nations since 1999 when NATO forces intervened to stop the murder of Kosovo Albanian civilians by Serb forces battling the uprising. Internationally mediated talks on its future are still ongoing. The trial of the men -- the first international war crimes trial of Kosovo Albanians -- sparked protests by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, who see KLA soldiers as fighters for independence and freedom from Serb oppression. Limaj, still a popular and influential figure in Kosovo, is one of the highest profile former KLA guerillas to be indicted by the Hague, along with former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, who is still on trial for war crimes during the conflict. NO CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE According to the original indictment, KLA forces led by Limaj and Musliu started rounding up Serb and Albanian civilians from central Kosovo in May 1998, imprisoning some 35 people in the Lapusnik Prison Camp. Limaj and Musliu controlled the camp, where detainees were routinely subjected to lengthy interrogations, beatings and torture. Bala worked there as a guard. By end-July 1998, soldiers under the command of the two men had murdered a total of 22 people, some in the camp, some in a clearing in the woods in the nearby Berisa mountains, the indictment said. Bala personally committed some of the murders.Prosecutors appealed the original "not-guilty" verdicts citing errors in the procedure, and arguing that Limaj and Musliu had planned the use torture in Lapusnik all along. But the Appeals Chamber ruled that although factual findings showed KLA soldiers committed cruel treatment and torture, this did not constitute a deliberate criminal enterprise. The judges upheld that Limaj had no direct role in the treatment of prisoners in the camp. At the time of the original acquittal, Serb officials said it was a "judicial disgrace" and accused the court of bias.
