BELGRADE, Serbia — Nebojsa Pavkovic, a former Serb-led Yugoslav army chief who was convicted by a U.N. court of war crimes during the war in Kosovo, has died, Serbian officials and media said Monday. He was 79.

Pavkovic died in Belgrade, Serbia's capital, less than a month after he was released from a prison in Finland where he had been serving a 22-year jail sentence for the atrocities against ethnic Albanians in the 1998-99 conflict.

Pavkovic commanded the Serb-led Yugoslav army troops in Kosovo during a Serbian crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanian forces who launched a rebellion to gain independence for the territory which was part of Serbia at the time.

Serbian security forces were accused of systematic crimes against civilians that included expulsions, torture, detentions and mu

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