Stamena Jelić, the wife of Marko Jelić, a Serb from Kosovo and Metohija who was kidnapped and murdered by the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army in August 1999, testified yesterday before the Specialized Chamber for War Crimes in Kosovo and Metohija in The Hague, in the “Tači et al.” trial. To this day, she does not know where her husband’s remains are located, and in her video-link testimony, she stated that her husband was taken away by people in the uniforms of the so-called KLA.
Marko Jelić is mentioned in the indictment against former leaders of the so-called KLA, Hashim Thaçi, Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi, and Kadri Veseli, in descriptions of executions in Orahovac, of which, according to prosecutors, there were 11. Those killed, it is stated, were Cvetko Pelević, Panta Grković, Marko Jelić, Boban Dedić, Hisen Krasniqi, and six other unnamed individuals.
Jelić, who was 31 years old when he was kidnapped, was employed as an economist.
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She stated that three members of the so-called KLA entered the family home in Orahovac and kidnapped Marko in front of his three-year-old son and two-year-old daughter.
“We never found him. Most of all, we would like to know what happened, to find at least a bone to bury him with dignity, to know where he is so we can go and cry when it’s hard,” she said, adding that one of the kidnappers’ surname was Bugari and that he lived near them.
She blamed Ismet Tara, the leader of the so-called KLA in Orahovac, for the kidnappings in Orahovac, of which, according to the indictment, there were 11.
“My mother-in-law went personally to Tara to report her son’s disappearance, she told me that,” she stated, adding that it did not help to find him.
She said that “she knows nothing about the investigation into the kidnapping of Marko Jelić conducted by the OSCE official Frank Ledwidge, for whom Marko worked as a translator”.
“We reported the disappearance to KFOR, and Frank took us from Kosovo to Montenegro and no one asked us anything else,” she said.
She said that her husband’s disappearance had a great impact on the family, that her daughter did not speak for a month after that, but just sat and stared at one point. After the kidnapping, they continued their life in Berane.
“In the summer of 1999, the witness lived in Orahovac with her husband Marko Jelić and family members. On June 16, 1999, she witnessed the kidnapping and mistreatment of her neighbor by KLA soldiers. Later that day, she was told by other people that three other Serbs living nearby had been taken away by KLA members in a vehicle. On August 9, 1999, three KLA members took her husband from their house. He never returned home and has been missing ever since. Marko Jelić’s mother tried to get information about her son through the KLA commander, but was unsuccessful. Of all the kidnapped Serbs, only one body was found” it was heard in the summary of the prosecution’s testimony.
The indictment states that Marko Jelić was taken from his home in Orahovac by members of the so-called KLA on August 9, 1999, and that his family members were mistreated.
“Jelić was last seen in KLA custody, and his remains have never been found,” the indictment states.
The suffering of Pelević and Grković from Orahovac is described:
“On or about June 16, 1999, certain members of the KLA took Pelević and Grković from their homes in Orahovac. They were mistreated before being taken away. On the same day, certain members of the KLA kidnapped at least three people. The remains of Grković were later found. The body of Cvetko Pelević has never been found.”
It is also stated that Boban Dedić was taken away in a car by certain members of the so-called KLA from outside the “Broj 18” factory in Orahovac at the end of June 1999. His father, Predrag Dedić, who has already testified in The Hague, still does not know where his son’s remains are.
Incidentally, the indictment in 10 counts charges the “four” with persecution on political and ethnic grounds, imprisonment, unlawful arrest and detention, other inhumane acts, cruel treatment, enforced disappearance, torture in two counts, and murders in 42 illegal detention centers of the so-called KLA in Kosovo and Albania of approximately 407 detainees, of whom at least 102 were killed, from March 1998 to September 1999. As accomplices in the criminal association, the indictment also mentions the following officers of the so-called KLA: Azem Sulja, Ljah Brahimaj, Fatmir Ljimaj, Sulejman Seljimi, Rustem Mustafa, Šukri Buja, Ljatif Gaši, and Sabit Geci.
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Source: Novosti
Photo: Prinstscreen