Kosovo war crimes convict dies

Ojdanic was chief of the Serbian Army General Staff during the Kosovo war. As such, he was among the leading Serbian officials who organised the mass executions of Albanian civilians in Kosovo and the expulsion of about one million Kosovo citizens.

In 2000 he was appointed minister of defence of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. By 2002 he had been transferred to The Hague. In 2009, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for war crimes in Kosovo.

Ojdanic in January myth to The Hague Tribunal.

“I fully accept all findings that have been made in the trial [against me]. All that remains for me is to carry out my” sentence, Ojdanic wrote in a letter he sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on January 25th 2013.

Under the indictment, General “knew of the campaign of terror, violence, and violent expulsions made by the VJ [Yugoslav Army] and Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs against Kosovo Albanians, but did not take the effective measures available to”.

He was released from prison in 2013. Ojdanic was indicted in 1999 along with former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, former Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Shainovic, former Yugoslav Army Commander Nebojsa Pavkovic, former chief of staff of Pristina troops, Vdalmir Lazarevic, and former head of Serbia's Interior Ministry for Kosovo, Sreten Lukic. Ojdanic was born in 1941 near Uzice. It ended the Military Academy in 1964. He served in Sarajevo, Gjakova, Prizren, Pristina, Uzice and Belgrade.