2 minutes agoBlake: The issue of missing persons being treated as political
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)“The question of the missing is being addressed as political”. So says Bekim Blakaj, from the Centre for Human Rights in Kosovo”, invited to the “Balkan” show studio to discuss the most sensitive issues of Kosovo and Serbia. Blakaj stressed they are in the process of verifying all missing and monitoring all [...]
“We are in the process of verifying all persons who were killed. We have recorded about 13 thousand people killed. We believe this data is completely accurate. Monitor all court hearings held in Kosovo. We have also begun reporting on judicial processes at The Hague”, he said.
The issue of missing persons has been put into dialogue with Serbia, but according to him, it continues to be treated as political. Blakaj says Kosovo and Serbia institutions have not co-operated in this respect and that Belgrade has not provided information concerning the whereabouts of the mass cemetery, though it has.
The missing persons' search has also entered the dialog. The process is not very transparent. This process has been passed by barriers during this period. The very fact that a mass cemetery was found in 2019, where 9 Albanian civilians were found, had before that been found another cemetery with 54 troops. It shows that institutions have not co-operated. Two decades it's taken them to give out information on the cemetery. The issue of the missing has been treated as political. I'm afraid even at this moment the issue of missing persons is treated as such”, Blakaj said.
Regarding the issue of specialised chambers in The Hague, he says it came as a result of the lack of seriousness of Kosovo institutions.
This whole specialized room thing started early. Institutions in Kosovo have not taken this report seriously. This whole report was ignored, and therefore a special mechanism was developed, a special task force. Due to the lack of seriousness of our institutions came to the creation of specialised chamber”, he said.
But what if the Council of Europe wants to review Dick Marty's report? Blakaj says that if it happens, the credibility of specialised rooms would be questioned.
I don't think I'm a connoisseur of the Council of Europe, in all likelihood there will be a question about Marty's report. Credition of specialised rooms would fluctuate. However, what I did not mention in the Council of Europe report prepared by Dick Marty were serious and the international community would not allow that to pass without investigation. The issue has been ignored by Kosovo institutions. They were hoping this would pass”, he said. /abcnews. al
