Un find, Kosovo seeks answers to launch excavations at new locations in Serbia

Serbia is continuing to keep the fate of over 1,600 missing persons in the recent war in Kosovo. Kosovo institutions, however, expect a further dynamic in this process, as there will be no information or location that will not have excavations within Kosovo's territory. In Serbia, however, there are three to four locations in which our country is waiting for answers to begin excavations.

The leader of the Government Commission for Missing Persons, the Garaist, in an interview for KosovoPress, said that in the past year, family members have surrendered to the remains of 25 people, until it has worked in nine different locations where two bodies have been exhumed.

According to him, in October 2021, the nine bodies of martyrs killed in the April 1999 Genial massacre were buried, until this year stresses how the commission has an added dynamic for intensifying all locations in Kosovo.

Until more than a thousand and 600 people continue to be found, of course any information that can be classified and assessed as information that can contribute to the process should be treated with high priority... We are making efforts to increase a dynamic in the process this year. The chairman of the commission is in constant communication with colleagues of the Institute of Legal Medicine and the Institute for War Investigations, but also the other competent institutions of the Republic of Kosovo, competent courts to have an added dynamic in the process, or to intensify the joint commitment that all possible locations of the Republic of Kosovo be treated and prosecuted in the sense of”, he says.

For the discovery of Mortore waste territories from the recent war, Gara said there are three or four locations in the Serbian state in which the commission has already sent the paperwork to international partners to allow excavations in that state.

While adding that Kosovo remains an example for the number of locations which have been treated for only one year.

“Challengers remain the locations on Serbia's territory, but in these cases we are in constant communication with international partners that are part of this process to increase pressure and pressure on the Serbian side to get the date to start digging for locations marked on Serbia's territory as soon as possible... Within Kosovo's territory there will be no information or location, which will not be treated in the sense of excavations, namely, the Republic of Kosovo will continue to be an example for the approach of information, the number of information, or the number of locations that have been addressed within the year... There are at least three or four locations through which we have already submitted the official paperwork and are marked and we are waiting to have a co-ordination with international partners”, said the Race for Kosova Prees

The race added that their continued demands on international partners are to increase pressure on the Serbian side to have the dates of when excavations can be conducted there.

“While in other activities we are making efforts, we have been announced to have an increased dynamic in the process and in full co-ordination with the family of the missing persons so that, in addition to institutional engagement, there may be a better legal treatment for the family of the missing persons... For the state of Serbia, our demands are ongoing not only in demand but in co-operation with international partners is continuing to increase pressure on the Serbian side to have as soon as the dates are provided for the launch of excavations, while for locations within the territory of the Republic of Kosovo, certainly now with adapting to the weather conditions, there will be an added agenda for addressing already provided information, not only by the commission, but also by other competent institutions in this case from the Institute of Legal Medicine, the police sector for war crimes investigating, Kosovo Special Prosecutor and competent courts, he said.