EULEX: The issue of the missing continues to be one of the top priorities

On the occasion of International Missing Day, EULEX remembers the tragedy of those who disappeared as well as the plowshares of their families.

I wish to offer my support to families who are still waiting to find out what happened to their loved ones. This is an issue that has affected many families here in Kosovo and the region, so it continues to be one of EULEX's top priorities. While the nature of the identification process is sensitive, complicated and takes time, it is very important that it continue in order for families to find answers to the fate of the undiscovered,” EULEX Mission chief Alexander Papadopoulos has said through a statement sent to the media by this mission.

As stated in the statement EULEX has contributed to Kosovo's research into finding out about a team of forensic experts working at the Law Medicine Institute (IML) within the Kosovo Ministry of Justice in intensive efforts to uncover the fate of the undiscovered. In parallel with this, over the past few years, EULEX has trained the local team for work on the ground for the way the location assessments are conducted and exhumations are conducted.

Within EULEX's commitments to empowering local capacities, two local doctors have completed a course <x0online” for forensic anthropology from the University of Leicester, and have been trained in their work site for the search for undiscovered persons.

Since September 2016, EULEX forensic experts have been exploiting the Geographic Information Systems and forecast patterns at micro-scaling level as part of their commitments to uncovering the fate of the missing. And so, EULEX has been testing the files to match the blood samples of each person's missing. Preliminary results have already shown a successful process.

“Finually, EULEX is here to help Kosovo institutions find the unemployed with those tools and opportunities we have. Therefore, as long as we are here, we will never give up,” said Papadopoulos.