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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Resolution of Klecka case important for clearing up faith of missing persons

Belgrade, 27 March 2012

President of the Serbian government’s Commission for Missing Persons Veljko Odalovic said today that the possible relieving of responsibility of Fatmir Ljimaj for the war crime in Kosovo, in Klecka case, could slow down the process of finding and clearing up the fate of missing persons.

Veljko Odalovic

Odalovic said at a news conference, held at the Serbian government, that if these proceedings are completed by relieving Ljimaj of responsibility, not much can be expected from the investigation on human organ trafficking, on Belacevac case, from finding victims in Livadsko jezero Lake, and all other cases.

The President of the Commission for Missing Persons said that the Klecka is one of the places that are extremely important for discovering the fate of the missing and prosecuting those responsible for war crimes.

He noted that the trace from Klecka led to discovering 27 bodies in 2005, 13 in Malisevo, and the bodies of 5 soldiers and 2 policemen in Klecka last year and the year before.

It is obvious that there were kidnappings, crimes and concentration camps, Odalovic said.

He said that all roads lead to the fact that Ljimaj and a group around him were responsible for what was happening in Klecka, and the investigation against Ljimaj directly led to discovering bodies of soldiers and policemen.

It was shocking to learn that a man who was almost indisputably proved to be responsible for all this was released, Odalovic warned, adding that it is good news that the prosecutor initiated proceedings again.

The Pristina District Court recently ordered the release of Ljimaj and another nine members of the former KLA accused of involvement in Klecka case, after a panel of judges decided that the testimony on this case from the statements and diaries of key witness Agim Zogaj were inadmissible.

Odalovic reiterated that the issue of missing persons is one of the worst consequences of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, adding that 13,324 individuals are currently reported as missing.

As long as the fate of these persons is cleared up, we will have constant problems and tensions, he said noting that resolving this issue is an important prerequisite for stabilising the overall situation in the region.

The Serbian government gives great importance to this issue as a humanitarian, civilised and state issue, he said.

The Commission has in the past year participated in the discovery of fates, exhumation, identification and handover of the remains of 169 people in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and in Kosovo-Metohija, Odalovic said.

He added that at the beginning, there were more than 3,300 missing persons from Kosovo- Metohija, while the number is now 1,723.

Odalovic said that 403 Serbian citizens are missing in the territory of Croatia, 97 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which also applies to more than 1,200 persons from Croatia, whose families are refugees living in Serbia.

There is an overall progress in clarifying the fate of the missing, but a large number of unidentified human remains are still in the mortuaries throughout the former Yugoslavia, he said.

There are more than 5,000 unidentified bodies, he said, adding that their successful identification would be a significant result.