Kosovo’s institutional leaders, accredited ambassadors in Prishtina, and families of the missing persons paid tribute on Friday at the Monument of the Missing, marking the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
President Vjosa Osmani said Kosovo’s efforts for justice and to hold Serbia accountable for genocide in Kosovo will never stop.
She stressed that by keeping the remains of victims of enforced disappearance in mass graves, Serbia is committing a continuing crime.
She therefore called on Kosovo’s international allies to put pressure on Serbia to disclosethe fate of the victims of enforced disappearances.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Dimal Basha, also called for pressure from the international community on Serbia to clarify the fate of the forcibly disappeared persons in Kosovo.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said Kosovo’s institutions are doing their utmost to find victims of enforced disappearance, noting that 18 excavation and tracing activities have been carried out this year.
However, he stressed that Serbia is not respecting the Brussels agreement on the disappeared, mentioning the failure to begin excavations at two sites in Serbia.
Kushtrim Gara, from the Government Commission on Victims of Enforced Disappearances, said that excavations in Serbia remain a major challenge, as Serbia has politicized this humanitarian issue.
Ahmet Grajqevci, head of the Coordinating Council on Missing Persons and War Crimes, also called on Serbia to disclose the fate of the victims of enforced disappearance.
Currently, the remains of 1,584 citizens killed during the last war in Kosovo are still missing, having been forcibly disappeared by Serbia.
Kosovo’s state authorities have repeatedly called on Serbia to open its state archives, which they say would help shed light on the fate of the missing persons. /KosovaPress/
