The Chairman of the Government Commission for Missing Persons, Andin Hoti, has assessed the news of the issuance of an arrest warrant for Milan Radoicic as good, but at the same time belated.
The Basic Court in Pristina has issued an arrest warrant for Milan Radoicic, the main defendant in the terrorist attack in Banjsk, for “war crimes against the civilian population.” He is among 20 Serbs who have been issued arrest warrants and are suspected of killing 1999 Albanian civilians in Gjakova in May 106.
"I think we are late. Of course it is a very good initiative. But we have hundreds and thousands of criminals like Radoićić or others, who are accused today, who have committed the most macabre crimes that exist." "and they are roaming free. We have certain individuals, with well-known names, who have hidden people's bodies. For example, we have the names of the people who took my father from the high-security institution, which is prison, and they are roaming free in Belgrade," Hoti said on KTV's "60 Minutes."
He said that such initiatives are welcome, but they are overdue and said that there are cases where criminals have been released for a short period of time.
Hoti said that there are currently 1588 people who were forcibly disappeared during the war in Kosovo. He said that they are insisting that the excavations in Batajnica be resumed, but the Serbian side is continuing its blocking approach.
He said he hopes that the new EU envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Peter Sorensen, will give greater priority to the issue of missing persons.
"So far this year we have carried out 4 excavations in the territory of Kosovo. We have a minimum plan for 11 more excavations. The main challenges are when it comes to territory in Serbia. We have a complete blockade. Most of the missing persons are alleged to be in the territory of Serbia... We have discussed Batajnica with the Serbian delegation in working groups, but we have also discussed it in Brussels. We have requested to return to Batajnica. Batajnica, together with Petrovo Selo and Peruqac, are three locations that were treated in 2000, 2001 and 2002. There have been no excavations there for 22-23 years. We have requested for two years without interruption to return to Batajnica, unfortunately the Serbian side last year, when we had it as a priority topic on the agenda, postponed it to next year. It did not provide sufficient explanations why we should not go. It is not in our hands", said Hoti.
Hoti said that the European Union has not punished Serbia nor criticized it for not participating in the meeting convened on January 15 of the Joint Commission. He also said that on January 31, Serbia also stopped cooperation at the expert level.
As for Sorensen, Hoti said that first impressions are good.
"The very fact that Mr. Sorensen, in his first visit to Kosovo, in addition to the leaders, also met with me as the chairman of the Commission, shows that he prioritizes the issue of missing persons. There is also the fact that Sorensen was in Kosovo 6 years before the war, and he knows the issue. He said that one of his main priorities will be the issue of missing persons. I do not want to accuse anyone, but Mr. Miroslav Lajcak has never met the chairman of the Commission when he came to Kosovo. I have not seen any tendency on his part to prioritize the issue of missing persons, and I saw it in Sorensen in the first meeting," Hoti said.
He said that Brussels is constantly insisting that Serbia open its archives.
He indicated that according to the agreement in Brussels, the use of LIDAR equipment, which scans the ground from the air, is foreseen. He said that scanning has been done in Kosovo and Serbia, but while Kosovo has come out with a report on the findings, there is still no report from the Serbian side on the findings there.
Hoti said that based on the screenings, Kosovo has treated four locations this year so far, and three - Dragodani, Istog and Podujevo - are in the treatment phase.
"LIDAR has resulted in the discovery of anomalies, and excavations need to be carried out. We have at least 11 future locations to complete in 3-4 months," said Hoti.
Andin Hoti, meanwhile, said that identifications have also begun using DNA methods in some cases where there may have been errors, because at the time the application was made, it was not done using DNA.
He said that the Dubrava Prison massacre is also being addressed in this case, saying that family members have been asked to donate a drop of blood.
He said he doesn't want it to be thought that everything went wrong, but where there are doubts, they should be removed.
"By traditional identification, I mean that a family has taken the body based on clothes, ID, watch or thought it was the body of a relative. They were not done with DNA methods. And these identifications took place during the years 1999-2002. Since 2003, it has started with the scientific method, with DNA. It does not mean that they are completely wrong, it does not mean that we will go all out to beg and convince them to give blood. We select based on information that we receive from different factors, from organizations... We ask the families to give a drop of blood, because we do not even touch the body or anything. Through the blood, the DNA is matched with the samples that we already have in the morgue. In NN cases in the morgue, there are approximately 300 mortal remains. If it turns out that a mistake was made, we tell the family members that the body must be exhumed and we go with other procedures. For this, we ask the family members to have understanding, and we have their understanding, there is very little resistance," said Hoti.
