Un find relatives seek condition in dialogue with Serbia

The issue of the dead now of 20 years remains a huge unresolved burden for Kosovo institutions. Family members from Kosovo's future government demand that, as for the fate of the missing, be discussed in Brussels. They even expect to be part of the negotiating team for dialogue with Serbia. Vetevendosje does not rule out the possibility, but will initially review the so-called agreements with the Serbian side.

Lutfie Ademi Vokshi of the town of Mitrovica has been waiting 20 years for news of her brother, Ademi, who disappeared on April 19, 1999, when a group of 23 people had tried to leave Kosovo in the direction of Montenegro.

This says there is evidence proving that the Serbian Army knows about its brother's whereabouts.

Ademi-Vokshi: It's hard for our family to look for our family for 20 years

That 20 years of searching and there's nothing that's still too bad for family members, and especially for us, for me and my family... Doubts are gone on Dren's sides at Zubtin Potok's, it's 23rd. I have a document sealed by Belgrade that that that group has taken the Belgrade Army, Serbia can be given responsibility for this group and respond to whether they are in the mountain or sent elsewhere, as is usually Serbia who has taken the bodies and sent them to question now is whether they're in Drene, in the mountain where they caught them or if they're not there, then Serbia should tell”, she said.

As she speaks of her brother with much excitement and pain, Sister Lutfia says that as family members, they are not satisfied with institutional work, so she requires that the issue of the found ones be carried out in Brussels.

It demands that in the negotiating group with the Serbian side have family members of the missing.

Ademi-Vokshi: I demand from the new government that Serbia make condition of discussion on the fate of missing

I'm very happy until the last corpse is found we family is never satisfied until I find my brother and I don't know a grave to send a flower, then I don't know how to be happy. I had asked Kosovo institutions that the new government now come, to make sure it talks with Serbia and the missing, to bring them back, to know where we have... I had also asked one of our representatives to participate no matter who he is, but let him be the one with a broken heart that knows and hurts the soul and knows to look because the work of the found out is not political, but let it be known that we don't have”, said this sister who expects to know about her brother's fate every day.

Presentation and discussion of the missing in Brussels also requires Bajram Cerkini from the Missing Persons Source Centre, which expects the new government to return seriousness to the issue of the found.

According to him, as Kosovo politics had put greater pressure on and the fate of the found ones would have been whitened or imposed on the Serbian side.

Cerkin expects the next government to discuss the issue of missing persons in Brussels, as well as family members to be part of that dialogue.

Cherkini: We demand that family members of the missing be involved in dialogue with Serbia

I believe that they will support us and send him to the highest level, properly the issue of the found ones by mentioning as Brussels is mentioned. We've always said it's bad to go into a dialogue here without one or two family members it's very bad to get a family who don't know about his love for 20 years and say the things he's collected as a product, as information, or correct evidence for those who really know... we're being violated by human rights every day, where it's the reason that the local institutions and the internationals don't work enough, what the locals should do, put pressure on those who know who are the ones who know who have freed us, the Cherkins said.

Even the co-ordinator of the Government Commission for Missing Persons, Conception Gara, says the issue of missing persons should be seen with priority from the future Kosovo government.

As long as it requires that the issue of the found one be put into political dialogue, Gara considers that only international pressure can convince the Serbian state of opening archives.

Race: Brussels opportunities to increase pressure on Serbia

The “report with Brussels perhaps more than as a topic that will be discussed in the dialogue in Brussels is a theme in the sense that the issue of missing persons be part of the highest carriers of state institutions, since Brussels or the European Union in general, but other Western countries are seen as an opportunity to increase pressure on the Serbian side to be more co-operative in the process. Whether the issue can be addressed within the dialogue in Brussels as a particular important topic is for the issue to be addressed in Brussels' dialogue and the issue to be addressed at all high-level meetings meetings so that carriers”, Gara said.

Linked to the request of family members of the missing to be part of dialogue with Serbia, Vetevendosje Movement Deputy Chairman Besnik Bislimi does not rule out this opportunity, but says that until now the agreements signed with the Serbian side will be revised.

Bislimi estimates that the Vetevendosje Movement will start negotiations with all local relevant factors that are affected by talks with the Serbian state.

Bislimi: Each of those infected by dialogue with Serbia could be part of the dialogue

For the final phase of dialogue, we sit down with local relevant factors that have an interest in negotiations. These could be the families of the missing, it could be the banking system, the union of pensioners who lost pensions even then, according to the negotiations, seen by which one should be part of the negotiating team. It means at this stage we can't be, you'll be part of the negotiating team and you won't be. The goal of Vetevendosje Movement is first for the negotiating team to be reflecting an internal political consensus within parliament, but also of the internal social consensus meaning that partisans in society who are infected by dialogue with Serbia may have claims to be part of the” dialogue, Bislim said.

Even 20 years after the war, there is still no need for the fate and location of another 15,000.