NO JUSTICE FOR HUNDREDS OF MISSING SERBS, STILL NEW LIGHT SHED ON REAL NATURE OF KLA

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 17 /SRNA/ - Hundreds of families of people who went missing in Kosovo and Metohija have not received justice through the verdict against the leaders of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army /KLA/, but for the first time the verdict speaks of organised crimes committed by people at the top of the so-called KLA hierarchy, Professor Duško Čelić, whose brother went missing in Kosovo and Metohija, said.

Čelić, a professor at the Faculty of Law in North Mitrovica, pointed out that the key problem with the Hague verdict is that it does not cover crimes against humanity, because without such a legal classification, crimes committed after June 10, 1999 effectively constitute ordinary murders and ordinary kidnappings.

He explained that this means that such crimes become subject to a statute of limitations and that justice will never be achieved through the courts.

Čelić stressed that none of the hundreds of missing Ivans, Milans, Zorans, Dragans, nor their families have received justice through the Hague court's ruling, but that the verdict has, for the first time, shed a different light on events in the province.

"For the first time, it speaks of organised, systematic crimes committed by people who were at the top of the so-called KLA hierarchy, thereby rejecting the claim that it was merely an ordinary guerrilla force," Čelić told RTS.

Commenting on the fact that four KLA leaders were sentenced to a combined 81 years in prison, Čelić recalled that, in the case of "Banjska", for alleged armed rebellion and the deaths of three Serbs and one Albanian, three Serbs were handed two life sentences and one 30-year prison sentence.

"Here, as far as we know, we have around 300 victims, more than 96 murders, while the sentences are 25 years and less, which speaks of, to put it mildly, a double standard when it comes to the trials," Čelić said.

He expressed concern that yesterday’s demonstrations in The Hague and Priština were intended to put pressure on the Appeals Panel.

The Specialist Chambers of Kosovo in The Hague yesterday handed down first-instance verdicts against four leaders of the terrorist KLA - Hashim Thaçi, Kadri Veseli, Jakup Krasniqi and Rexhep Selimi. Thaçi was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Veseli to 18, Krasniqi to 25 and Selimi to 13 years.