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The families of the disappeared in Kosovo have called on authorities in Belgrade and Pristina to depoliticize the issue of searching for more than 1,600 people missing since the last war in Kosovo in 1998-99.
"We have the right to a dignified burial of our loved ones. We have the right to prosecute war crimes. We have the right to compensation and the construction of a memorial for the disappeared at the crime scene," said Natasha Shqepanoviq, president of the Association of Families of Kosovo War Victims, Radio Free Europe reports.
During joint press conferences on December 12 in Belgrade and recently in Pristina, the families of the missing persons, on the occasion of International Human Rights Day on December 10, urged competent institutions to resolve this issue.
Bajram Qerkinaj from the Resource Center for Missing Persons based in Pristina, stated in Belgrade that results would not be lacking if authorities treated the search for missing persons as a humanitarian issue.
"Politicians do not allow this process to move forward. We are not sufficiently informed about the results because no one informs us, so collectively we are trying to explain the situation," said Qerkinaj.
According to data from the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) as of September this year, 1,616 people have gone missing since the last war in Kosovo. The Government Commission for Missing Persons in Serbia reported that about two-thirds of them are Albanians, 568 are Serbs, and others are of mixed Albanian and Serbian descent.
Their families have collectively appealed to the working groups of Pristina and Belgrade to resume the search for the missing, as they have not met since 2021.
The last formal move by both parties was on May 2, when in Brussels, during talks on the normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, signed a declaration regarding the disappeared during the period 1998-2001.
In that document, they committed to cooperation in the identification and investigation of graves, the exchange of information and documentation, as well as the realization of the rights of the families of the disappeared.
Natasha Shqepanoviq stated that finding the missing persons is a prerequisite for reconciliation in Kosovo.
"Our right to the truth is being violated by government representatives by throwing dust in our eyes. Their stance is that they do not have the political will to work together to shed light on the fate of the disappeared," said Shqepanoviq.
EULEX reported that perpetrators often hide evidence of abductions and killings by burying bodies in small secret graves, even in cemeteries.
Representatives of the European Union, Miroslav Lajčák, and the head of EULEX, Giovanni Pietro Barbano, recently called on authorities in Pristina and Belgrade to make progress in determining the fate of the disappeared and recognize their families' right to the truth.
EULEX announced on August 30 that, since the beginning of its mandate 15 years ago, it has conducted 746 field operations to find the disappeared, including 200 exhumations. It identified the remains of 492 people, including 339 missing persons.