Odalovic: The indictment against Thaci mentions 445 imprisoned, tortured, and killed persons

The President of the Commission on Missing Persons of the Government of Serbia, Veljko Odalovic, said that the indictment of the Special Court in The Hague against the four KLA leaders referred to 445 Albanians, Serbs, and Roma people who had been imprisoned, mistreated, beaten and killed in 1998 and 1999, Danas reports.

The indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity includes the former president of Kosovo and one of the leaders of the KLA, Hashim Thaci, as well as Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi, and Rexhep Selimi, and the trial should begin on Tuesday, April 4.

Odalovic told Radio Television of Serbia that he hoped that this was one of the groups that would be tried, because, according to him, there had been many more crimes than what had been included in the indictment.

He stated that the indictment was also important from the aspect of missing persons because it talked about 43 illegal prisons that had been recorded and confirmed to have existed.

"Otherwise, there had been 145 of them in the area of Kosovo and Metohija, international officials pointed out. A large number of those whom we are looking for today were in those prisons, a large number were unfortunately killed. A number of them were certainly transported to Albania," Odalovic said.

Asked if the indictment could shed light on what had happened in the "yellow house", Odalovic said that it also covered some camps in Albania and that there was plenty of room if there was readiness and enough evidence collected.

"The problem here is, of course, what we saw in some attempts to prosecute the leaders and members of the so-called KLA, where witnesses disappeared. Many gave up, but the largest number disappeared," Odalovic said and added that the tribunal had a great responsibility to ensure the protection of witnesses in this proceeding.