Political will is defining the fate of the found

For many families in Kosovo it is becoming 21 years, since they have no information for their missing family members in the last war.

Although pushed in years, Bajram Qerkeyni from Mitrovica has not stopped looking for his son, who has been missing since 1999.

The site has been involved in many commissions and organisations, which since the post-war have dealt with the issue of undiscovered persons.

He has currently limited activities due to health problems, and is desperate about the lack of political readiness to find solutions to the issue of undiscovered persons.

The target says that the largest <x0phay has the international”...

Kosovo is not to blame. It's not our leadership. Internationals are guilty of not wanting to find”.

Bajram Korkin is chairman of the Co-ordination Council of Family Associations of Undiscovered Persons.

With this organisation for years has worked on collecting information as well as providing assistance to state institutions for the unemployed.

All known. Even troops, every bone piece, all know, because Kosovo wasn't big, but it's small. Now, say, after 21 years, I don't know anything is very bad”, says Qerkini.

Kerin says family members of the missing persons are losing hope that one day they will know about the fate of their resulting family members since 98-99.

Organizations dealing with human rights say that currently the number of people found is 1644. Of this number, the majority are Albanians, the others are Serbs and members of non-partisan communities living in Kosovo.

Koliqi's move by the organisation <x0Integre”, which covers the area of conventional justice, says there is a great lack of political will to whiteen the fate of the undiscovered.

As far as the issue of people being found, I believe it's not going the right way. There is no substantial progress now in reducing the number of missing persons. I believe this issue is no longer just issues at the level of forensics or police field professionals, or is it not just at the level of the prayers of the family of the missing persons to find their loved ones, but this issue is now fully political”, says Koliqi.

The head of the office at the government Commission for the Undiscovered, Conception Gara, says the process of finding missing persons is very complex and requires great political will.

For this reason, he says the results are also slow.

According to Gara, the Government Commission for the real estate cannot work on the ground because of circumstances created by the new coronary pandemic.

We have the hardest possible cases to solve. It takes much work and commitment to achieve a single result. At the moment, because of the circumstances that have been created even because of the [coronavius'] pandemic, we, together with colleagues of competent institutions that are part of this process, are analyzing some information that has been provided and at the first moment of adaptation of conditions, will continue to work on the ground”, says Gara.

The race cites several locations that he claims will be dug up after the normalisation of the situation.

“has a number of locations already listed. It is a case that has not ended in Serbia, several locations on Raska's territory in Serbia, as well as in Kosovo, location at the cemetery of the Muslim community in northern Mitrovica, a location in Prizren and at Pec”, says Gara.

For years, Kosovo and Serbia have established separate commissions dealing with the issue of missing persons.

These commissions in the past have had joint meetings, as well as participating in excavations at locations suspected of mass graveyards.

Recently, this collaboration, according to organisations monitoring this process, has not produced much results.

Despite information about possible mass cemeteries, following excavations at several suspected locations at the end has proved that there were no mortar remains.

Koliqi contrast from organisation “Interra” is not optimistic that without a political process, this solution to the cases of undiscovered persons could be resolved.

We strongly believe that the issue of these undiscovered persons can only advance a more serious treatment and political commitment of all, especially of decision-making people, who have the power to influence other state-functional institutions to work harder to find these people. I doubt that this number [of undiscovered] will be reduced in the way it is currently being treated”, says Koliqi.

During 2019, Kosovo authorities have conducted excavations at 26 locations within Kosovo's territory, suspected of mass cemetery. Excavations were also conducted at university campus in Pristina, which ended without any findings.

For every year, on April 27th, Kosovo institutions organise activities in memory of missing persons, but this year this date falls under the shadow of the new coronary pandemic.

Neither will the Government Commission for the Intangible organise activities due to measures for restricting movement imposed by authorities in an effort to prevent the distribution of the coronary.

In the absence of activities, civil society organisations have organised an action through which they have called on citizens, since April 27th, Monday, at 20 o'clock the lights in their homes for two minutes to mark the National Day of Undiscovered Persons from the last war in Kosovo.

After the end of the Kosovo war in 1999, there were 6 thousand and 500 missing persons. Since that time exhumations were carried out at mass cemeterys in Kosovo and Serbia, and up to now about 70 per cent have been found. /rel/