Kosovo continues to be challenged by the lack of information on mass graves. Serbia continues to politicize the issue of missing persons without showing where the remains of over 1600 people are. During the past year, the remains of only 25 people were handed over to their families for burial. They call for the international factor to put pressure on Serbia, and not just play the role of dialogue facilitator. Last year, the excavation of mass graves in Kizhevak, Serbia, was treated as a priority, while in Kosovo, work was done in nine different locations where only two bodies were exhumed. In October last year, the nine martyrs of the Rezalla massacre executed in April 1999 were reburied.

For more than two decades now, even Bajram Čerkini does not know anything about the fate of his son. The leader of the "Voice of Parents" association expresses his dissatisfaction with the work of the institutions in clarifying the fate of the missing. In Brussels, as he says, one cannot go without a strategy and program plan on how to deal with this issue.

"The Kosovo government says a word that we don't like, when it says the address of the missing persons is in Belgrade. Not our family members, but even those who completed the third grade of elementary school know that the crimes were committed by Belgrade, Slobodan Milosevic and the criminals. And as a majority, 1620 people are in the territory of Serbia. Why are you telling me Belgrade has them. Belgrade yes, but you haven't done the work inside, you haven't done the work, the locations inside. 'I found them piled up', you found them but they have to be 'picked up'. Then there must be a program plan, there must be a strategy. We are not able to make a strategy, but I as an association have made a three-year strategy, you as a state must also have a strategy. You have to tell the prosecutor's office so many locations", stated Čerkini for KosovaPress.

Kushtrim Gara from the Government Commission for the Missing says that during the last year the excavation process in Kizhevak was a priority, where in November 2020 the existence of a mass grave and mortal remains was confirmed.

"As a result of the work and excavations carried out at the location of the mass cemetery in Kizhevak during 2020 and specifically, in November, December 2020, after the confirmation of the existence of the mass cemetery, but also during the first part of the year (2021) , specifically during the month of May 2021, the bones of nine people, victims of the war, were found and exhumed. Of which there were seven new identifications and two cases of reunion. These cases of reunification belong to the bones that were buried in the mass cemetery in Rudnica, Rashka during 2014", he says.

The former director of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Arsim Gërxh, tells about the process of excavations that have been carried out since the waraliu. He talks about the difficulties of excavations in Kizhevak of Rashka.

"There we had a big change of location, it was a place where the waste from a nearby mine was dumped, where it is a place that the Serbs usually used to hide the traces of crime. Like Rudnica, Shtavali, which is expected to open. So, simply in the sixth year, thanks to the satellite photos of the United States of America, which is actually covering the satellite images, the exact location of that location was also found", says Gërxhaliu.

Nine bodies of Albanian victims were found in Kizhevak. In addition to excavations at this site, several other locations have been excavated.

"During the year (2021), there are at least nine locations in which we have been engaged. I am using the word at least nine locations, because it implies not only a few days of work but also weeks. [...] Of these nine locations, only two have resulted in the finding and exhumation of the mortal remains of two people. Because some of the cases continue to be in the identification procedure after DNA analysis. The largest number of locations have been negative. This once again confirms that during this year (2021), the challenge in the process of clarifying the fate of missing persons continues to be the lack of reliable information. And the lack of reliable information is certainly related to the lack of insufficient cooperation from the Serbian side," he declares.

Even this year, the son of Bajram Çerkin, who is dissatisfied with the number of mass graves excavated so far, did not enter the list of those found.

"You said 16 locations, how many locations have you opened? They mention Dren to me, but they have Bajram Čerkini in Dren when Adem's office was alive, in Kalludër and in all the mass cemeteries that are massive in Kosovo, but there is no work, no results. Do they know what they say 'we have returned 15'. Yes, you returned nine people to that Kizhevak. Even the one with satellite images, and not by the will of Velko Dallović who has shown that they are here. Even though he knew, at first he said there were nine more people, he didn't. Where are the others, they know that two trucks went, we said 420, they said 250. Guess what, they say they are satisfied, Kizhevak, Kizhevak. Don't take it", Čerkini criticizes the executive.

Even the forensic expert, Arsim Gërxhaliu says that more work and capacities are needed in the process of clarifying the fate of the missing.

"There is a need for much greater work in the field and the reactivation of cases, especially from 1999 to 2003. Because in this period we have over six thousand cases, of which 4019 were processed by the Hague Tribunal without analysis of DNA and over 2 cases which they buried independently, without analysis and autopsy. We have to go retrograde to the process. It is a big job and requires knowledge, experience, planning and a cost that must be prepared because many people must go out in the field", says Gërxh.aliu.

The leader of the Resource Center for Missing Persons, Bajram Čerkini, calls on the international community to pressure and condition Serbia to reveal the whereabouts of the remains of over 1600 missing persons.

"We have to put pressure on the internationals and the one in Brussels to say 'sir, we can't talk like this anymore, we are in the interests of the family members for their return, who found them.' It's the 21st century, it's little Kosovo. You took them, we have pictures that you took, we have living people who know the criminals. I am speaking for myself, we know them, we know who took them. I know who took my son, I gave him the names, surnames. Eight people, two girls and six men have taken them. As far as their research was done with my address, I have to say openly, a criminal was found in the territory of Novisad and was buried a month ago. "Why don't these people work", Čerkini concludes.

The Commission for Missing Persons intends to start work this year in five places where there are ordinances and is suspected of mass graves in Kosovo, as well as for two others in Serbia.

About 6500 people were missing after the end of the war. Since that time, several exhumations have been carried out in mass cemeteries in Kosovo and Serbia, and so far about 70 percent of the missing have been found. However, it is still not known where the remains of over 1600 people are.