The issue of the dead has become politics

In the spring of this year, excavations are expected to resume on Serbia's territory, where mass cemeteries are suspected of finding the bodies of Albanian civilians killed and then missing from Serbia during the last war in Kosovo. Kosovo authorities, with the help of satellite images of the American Army, have marked two locations there, Kizevac and Staffal. Family of the missing people remain dissatisfied with the work of institutions towards dawning the fate of their most loved ones, demanding that Serbia be conditioned in dialogue.

Without their loved ones, even without knowing where their remains are, family members of missing persons have begun this year. Disillusioned by the work of institutions, throughout the year they have called for pressure on Serbia so that the latter can show mass graves with Albanian civilians missing in the recent war in Kosovo.

Bajram Qerinje, chairman of the Association “Parents' Office”, says that for the dawning of the fate of the missing persons there has been no political will, no local politicians or the international community.

On the other hand, he says Serbia is playing with the issue of missing persons.

For 21 full years we've been tossed on this side, once in Chizevac, sometimes in Rudnica, you can mention 1015 locations that have been toying us here, are there. Now you're trusting your bones, for us family is discriminating all human rights we have to have”, he says.

Waters, mines and civilian tombs have been used by Serbia for hiding crime. This is witnessed by locations where troops of Albanian civilians have been found so far.

This is true of Chizevac, where stones and refuse have been thrown into that mine for years.

Excavations there began in 2015, but in the second half of 2020, with the help of satellite images provided by the U.S. military, precise coordinates of a cemetery from which at least five persons have been withdrawn, the examination of which was conducted and the results of identification were expected in spring.

With temperatures down, legal doctors have stopped digging, to continue them in March.

Legal Medicine Director Arsim Gerjaliu tells Kosovo Preis that the suspected mass cemetery in Serbia's Kizevac has been sealed and covered so that it can be protected from atmospheric conditions by then.

“With the finding of bone waste on November 16th, it had to carry out some technical issues and improvise the work on the site, tents, autopsy hall, containers, it was worked for two weeks on end, it was pulled around five troops, five individuals the minimum number, while the rest were preserved on the basis of five geoplastic standards, and a roof on the whole field has been placed to protect itself from the atmosphere because it is a mountainous spot near the ski center in that part of the Kopaunik, and a lot of the snow, says 18x>

After Kejevac, experts are expected to approach the ground at another location, also on Serbia's territory. They'll dig in the Staff, also a mine.

The “E have also visited the suspected location based on information at the Sijenica Staval, also mine, in which the mine waste was dumped. After Kejevac is finished next year, we won't be back at all, but we will continue at the Headquarters to continue the search of the Saturday there's a suspicion that there might be a mass cemetery even there”, he says.

In addition to Serbia, last year it was also unearthed in the Muslim cemetery in northern Kosovo, Surigane, Paula and Stanaj, while at the end of the year there were finds at the civilian cemetery in Rahovec and Prizren.

But in this process the challenge remains the issue of information where Serbia does not point to the locations of the mass cemetery.

“The challenge is a lack of reliable information and lack of reliable information is linked even to the lack of sufficient co-operation because in the sense of dialogue or communication between the commissions, however, there is a co-operation between the Government Commission of the Republic of Kosovo, that is, the Kosovo delegation, and that of Serbia, however, it is important that the issue in communication and with international partners continue to be addressed as issues of particular priority”, says Governing Commission Race for Invisible Persons.

While human rights-related organisations are demanding that the issue of missing persons be addressed as humanitarian issues.

Council for Freedoms and Human Rights Chairman Behxhet Shala says the issue has become political.

“There has been no movement on the issue of missing persons for the fact that this has turned into political issues and is not being treated as a human rights issue and humanitarian issues, there are approximately 1650 people found, the majority are Albanians. [...] Now that a cemetery was discovered in the Churchvak of Serbia is more than that Serbia has done because of the enormous pressure that has been done within Serbia in order to discover a cemetery but to hide perhaps another 50 cemeteries. Serbia is simply playing with the fate of the undiscovered, playing with the cemetery, turning it into a period of calculation how much it can benefit or lose politically, and according to it, the” actions, he says.

And Fund for Humanitarian Law director Bekim Blakaj says Serbia must be conditioned on this issue.

Serbia knows exactly where the mass cemetery is, but it's taking that information out from time to time when it's needed for political points. It has definitely had to be conditional on Serbia to release this information, to address this issue as humanitarian and not political in any way. [...] The practice is showing that it has not been treated as humanitarian because information about mass cemetery has been held hostage for more than 20 years”, Blakaj says.

But, according to him, the Kosovo side does not have any mechanism to condition Serbia, only if internationals can do that.

Bajram Qerinje says the Kosovo government should insist that it will not move away in any further discussion with the Serbian side until it shows no locations with the troops of Albanian civilians.

It's a huge sin if the Government doesn't have a concrete plan, don't insist on it, tell me, sir, you have enough, it's too much 21 years, we say mass cemetery where there are 2 people and more, they've taken out 100 people and I don't know where I left them. Not because it's a big game, you're playing with the spirits that the family went away with, but the children's blood has to do with the”, says Qerkina.

Meanwhile during the year, Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti has declared that the issue of the missing Government has taken first place.

“We've done our best in this direction, putting this topic first, where we've appointed a person who's completely dictated this process, certainly with the help of our international partners on such a sensitive case”, said Hoti to the families of the missing persons in Krusha during a visit late last year.

On the other hand, the former foreign minister, now head of Parliament in Serbia, Ivica Dacic, had publicly criticised Serbs who could co-operate with Albanians about the discovery of mass cemetery in Serbia.