Excavations continue to be found, unhappy family members

However, the Gara Framework, the head of the unit under the Government Commission for Undiscovered Persons, tells Radio Free Europe that despite the number of prosecuted locations and in which excavations were conducted this year, few of the findings of mortar waste or bone parts remain disturbing.

The “are somewhere over 20 percent from this total number of locations that have resulted in the findings of mortore waste. At least six or seven people have been exhumed, but yet I will be saving a little bit of these statistics, because only after all necessary forensic examinations are completed and once the identifications through DNA analysis can be confirmed correctly by individuals or persons exhumed”.

I believe that even this week, by Wednesday, we will be in the target location within the cemetery space in northern Mitrovica, respectively. Even in this location we worked in advance, in some cases, of which, at some points, some of the excavations have resulted in findings and in some results has been negative”.

But, representatives of the Associations of Families of Undiscovered Persons, express themselves disgruntled with the amount of work done for research, digging and finding mortary waste, or whiteling the fate of undiscovered persons.

Bajram Qerkeyni, chairman of the Co-ordination Council of Family Associations of Undiscovered Persons, speaking of Radio Free Europe, criticises the approach of the Kosovo and Serbian authorities over the dawning of the fate of undiscovered persons.

“have no strategy, to start with Pristina and finish it. They have no strategy to start (investigations and excavations) to complete locations within Kosovo. They have no strategy to end up outside Kosovo either. They start in Rudnica (Serbia), work for three or four days and return. Jalovishe like that. Many others, where things are not finished but always leave them in half. And how can we be content? No, we're always being added to our wounds”, Qerkey said.

Meanwhile, Gara says that during this year in Serbia only excavations have been made at two locations suspected of mass cemeterys -- in Jalovishte and Kizevac -- but in those locations no needed space has been involved and they have remained unfinished.

There's also information about a number of cases, mainly related to the Raska region and the Novi Pazar region, which we've presented as information, but which haven't been addressed yet, in the sense, whether the date is set to realise the evaluation dig, which means they haven't yet been processed for the beginning of the excavations. But even in these cases that the excavations have been carried out, in the cases of Jalovish and Kizevac, both cases are unfinished. It means, the entire space that has been marked, is not included in the digging framework that took place this year or even in the preliminary years”, Gara said.

The delegations of family associations of the missing persons of Kosovo and Serbia have been met in Pristina on Monday. Both delegations have placed flowers near the obelisk, dedicated to the found, in front of the Kosovo Assembly building.

Krkin says delegations of the associations of family members of the unknown from Kosovo and Serbia have agreed to work on a common strategy to address the issue of the found.

They were as disappointed as I was. It was said that neither the state of Serbia nor the state of Kosovo are working enough. The greatest requirement is for both Belgrade and Pristina to become the biggest pressure and for pressure to focus on government commissions and working groups to work. If they can't work, let them resign. They ask for more from the international community. It is a certain conclusion that the international community has satellite photographs and can perform”, Qerkeyny said.

About 6 thousand and 500 people have resulted in their being found at the end of the war in Kosovo in 1999.

In mass graves in Kosovo and Serbia, about 70 percent have already been found.

Meanwhile, the fate and location of about a thousand and 600 other people remain unlighted.