How Do They Remember Their Loved Ones? A confession by missing Kosovo family members

The moods for family members who no longer belong to them did not soften the nearly 24 years passed by the end of the war in Kosovo.

Family of those missing from the 1998/99 war, gathered at a discussion table in Pristina, confessed to Radio Europe free of memories of the missing, who said they still have it fresh in mind.

According to official data, there are still over 1,600 people found in recent war.

Aid Kerkin

In front of himself and 16 billiard balls, Aid Qerkey would like to have his uncle every time he plays the game.

This 24-year-old heard from my uncle's friends that he too had a bilardon passion.

I guess I would have had a very worthy rival. I can't play with anyone from the family because I've saved that place for the”, says Aidi.

Spoiled at his home because of the similarities in the appearance of missing Reshate, Aid likes to learn as much about the family who failed to get to know him personally.

The last “I started to find some friends of his pointing to the personality”, he says.

Aidi recalls that when he started working at a court in Mitrovica, a colleague had called him by his uncle's name, surprised by the physical similarities between the two.

He says all the family appreciates a letter Reshat left them before leaving the house and joining the Kosovo Liberation Army.

When I was born, on June 8, [1998], those days he, then, disappeared. He said we already have a successor and he's been out on the street with the KLA members, still without turning 30 years of”, Aidi relates.

Bukimirich Angela

The Bukimirich Angela from Peja will never forget the girl painted in a chocolate wrapping.

It was my favorite, it's about my memories. My uncle always bought me those chocolates. He was a wonderful person”, reports Angela, who currently works as a nurse at a Belgrade hospital.

Her uncle has disappeared since 1999. For the last time, she saw him 24 years ago, when he was about 40 years old.

At the time, Angela has greeted her, as she has moved to Montenegro, the cause of the war in Kosovo.

I have six family members, two uncles, aunts and other cousins missing. We've never found the”, says Angela.

Besides my uncle, who says he gave her his first swimming exercise, Angela also feels great pain over her aunt, who was pregnant when she disappeared.

My daughter was the most phenomenal woman in this world, because she was so full of love. You know what some people don't need to tell you a lot of words, but you just feel love and energy? We were very, very close”, says Angela.

Sevdije Begu

When he was still a child and had just started schooling, Yasar Begu moved from the village of Vlachi to his uncle's home in Mitrovica.

On Yasar's first day in her home, Sevdi remembers as the best moment with uncle's son now missing.

When he came from the village to Mitrovica, he had felt a pleasure. He told us how nice it is here. We've been looking at it strangely, thinking why this guy is saying so that we didn't find anything special to”, recalls Sevdija.

She says that this comment has been impressed on her mind as she proudly recounts her cousin's accomplishments.

We've been ages. He was the best student, even the school in the village has been named for his honor”, Sevdija relates.

But recent memories of Yasar, who was about 45 years old when he disappeared in 1999, are not so sweet.

I've met the last time we got out of the apartment. But he went to the other side, we to the other side. The column has been too long. We went to Gjakova and then we were sent back. He's gone to Pristina and we haven't seen him in”, Sevdija recalls.

Negovan Mavriq

Negovan from Rahovez lacks his brother, Mladan, as of October 12, 1999.

He still keeps numerous memories of him, but he is upset that such a thing cannot be said even by his 23-year-old niece.

“He married on August 15, 1999, disappeared on October 12th and bore a daughter on March 11th. Neither the girl knows him, nor he knows the girl. But I remember him as a brother, who we've lived together”, says Negovan.

He tells me his brother slept in a bed “for a very, very long time, until late”.

Family members of many missing persons have been activated in an attempt to whitewash their fate. So is Negovan.

Despite religion or nationality, we are still trying to find 1,621 people, turn their remains into families”, he says.

It's very difficult for parents who lost their children, it's very difficult for their wives, it's very difficult for kids who lost their parents, and that's why we're trying to make the pain easier by forcing institutions to find them”, the Negovan concludes.

Kosovo has emerged from the 1998/99 war with more than 10,000 people killed and over 5,000 missing. Over the years, many of the mortore remains have been found in mass graves in Serbia and Kosovo.

Kosovo authorities have repeatedly accused them in Serbia of not doing enough to whiteen the fate of over 1,600 people still missing.

With an agreement reached in Ohrid in March, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, agreed to adopt the Declaration of Missing Persons CHA, which can be done during their next meeting, May 2nd, in Brussels. / REL