Functionisation of the Commission for Unemployed Persons, Hoti: I fear Serbia will still reject implementation

After seven hours of discussion, Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on January 22nd to function on the Commission for Undiscovered Persons during the War in Kosovo, but that the chairman of the Government Commission for Missing Persons, Andy Hoti, fears that Serbia will still refuse to implement this commission or implement the requirements of the Kosovo side and that are archives.

Hoti in an interview for Online Economy has shown that at this meeting, Serbia has attempted to lose the power of the joint commission and leave me within the working group or other mechanisms.

He says Kosovo's demands have long been disclosed and are public, especially those related to access to Serbian military archives.

We've been putting our demands on since January 15th of last year, in June, in September we have rerun them. Plus, there are other public requests that you know we've been addressed to Vucciqi for the 37th Brigade archives. So our demands are clear, they're public, I didn't have to hide them, so I wrote them on Facebook status, even through the media. The demands are very clear, but it is expected that within the next meeting, Serbia is on the market ready to apply our demands, which is whether it is willing to allow us access to classified military archives, especially, in addition to other, Serb wartime“, he said.

Speaking of Serbia's stance, Hoti says she has repeatedly tried to dim the political power of the Joint Commission.

What pushed him doesn't know, but I guess he didn't have anywhere else to go. What Serbia wanted to do is that it wanted to regain the power of the joint commission, the political power I'm talking about, because we have other mechanisms. We have the working group under the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. We also have the regional group that is under the mediation of the International Commission for Missing Persons. In this case, not to repeat again, but my goal was to involve the European Union on this issue so that I had a kind of pressure or greater conditioning on Serbia in relation to the fate of missing persons. Now Serbia was refusing. In each form, the 7 hours we've been there, Serbia tried to take away the power of this joint commission and leave it within the processing group or other mechanisms we have. Of course, my position was that it couldn't happen because we agreed in 2024 in December, and that the main purpose of our arrival in Brussels has been that it's been. And they finally agreed. I haven't been to that meeting, in fact, meetings have been mostly through the European Union, through Mr. Sorensen, and at Mr. Sorensen's meeting with Serbia now what they have talked about. Finally, they gave up on that absurd request, perhaps even seeing it as absurd because there is no need to establish another mechanism when you have one and they were reconciled“, he said.

But whether Serbia will implement that decision, Hoti says it is expected to see the strength of the European Union when faced with Serb resistance.

And now, because when I speak, I want to understand the family and the family always, they agree, the joint commission was established, we will continue the meetings, our requests will be repeated that are public. But now what happens next, how ready the European Union is when it sees it being not implemented because I am afraid that Serbia will still refuse to implement this commission or implement our requests that are the archives of the European Union, that is important. I think if you really use its power, which it would need, the European Union, then this remains to be seen in the future“, he added.

Hoti has shown how the meeting went within the four walls in Brussels.

“Based on these reference terms, even though they have passed these terms, already a year and something, but based on these reference terms right after the establishment of Thursday, which had many challenges and Thursday, because Serbia refused that day, we have been at a meeting for this establishment of the commission, already within a month the European Union has a commitment on the basis of referral terms to once again call the next meeting and to pre-empt the demands of both parties<1).

Hoti emphasises that his goal since 2021, when he even started going to Brussels, had the EU's evolution in the ranks of missing persons because of Serbia's unwillingness to co-operate.

My “goal has been this from the beginning, namely, 2021 when I started going to Brussels, my goal has been to directly involve the European Union in the matter of missing persons, because Serbia is not willing to cooperate in this area, namely, you know the issue of archives and other issues. We got this job. Now, of course, work is still needed, because it needs the European Union to assume the role it is entitled to as leader. In terms of reference, one of the points says that any party that fails to cooperate or disagree with its activities, the vows it receives, then this chairman, or 27 European Union member states, announces Serbia's failure to comply with or co-operate in this case. That's why I think that's important here. Will luck be solved, because I talk to family members in this case if the fate of missing persons is solved, it will not be solved with this point. But today we have a mechanism and a European Union document that would have to give an even greater pressure on Serbia to get the credit information that we continue with “, he underlined.

The January 22nd agreement has been reached at a trilateral meeting in Brussels, led by the European Emisari for dialogue, Peter Sorensen. /Periscopi/