Kosovo seeks pressure on Serbia over missing persons

Serbia continues to fail to implement the commitments made in the Brussels Declaration on missing persons, refusing to open military and police archives. Following the discovery of the mass grave in Zubin-Potok, senior state representatives have called for the international community to increase pressure on official Belgrade to provide information on the whereabouts of the missing.

The highest state representatives appealed on Wednesday to internationals to put pressure on Serbia, with the aim of getting it to reveal the locations of those who disappeared forcibly during the war.

The appeal was made a day after excavations began for a mass grave in the village of Kalludër e Vogël in Zubin-Potok, suspected to contain the bodies of 23 intellectuals from the Mitrovica region who were captured by Serbian forces in 1999 and later executed. The location only became known after two people were arrested in Zubin-Potok on suspicion of committing war crimes.

Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that while these excavations are the result of the work of Kosovo institutions, Serbia's non-implementation of the Brussels Declaration on Enforced Disappearances, agreed in 2023, namely the refusal to open the army archives, is proof that this state continues to evade responsibility for the crimes committed in Kosovo during the last war.

Archives that won't open

On May 2, 2023, Prime Minister Kurti and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, signed a joint statement on missing persons.

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Among the commitments were: full access to confidential information, including that with classified status; making available all documents relevant to determining the fate of missing persons, as well as joint work through a commission chaired by the European Union.

Despite pledges, Kurti said that Serbia is not providing useful information to clarify the fate of the missing.

"Therefore, we reiterate our call to international factors to increase pressure on Serbia to, among other things, change the 30-year classification decision until 2044 and open the archive of the 37th Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army, so that we have information to clarify the fate of the forcibly disappeared," Kurti said.

He made this appeal during the presentation of the preliminary list of war victims, which was published by the Institute for War Crimes in Kosovo (IKKL). Based on this list, there are 1.578 forcibly disappeared. This includes people whose fate remains unclear and for whom there is credible evidence that the disappearance is related to the circumstances of the war.

The Kurti-Vučić Joint Declaration also foresees the creation of a Joint Commission that oversees the implementation of commitments.

This group met for the first time in January of this year in Brussels.

Peter Sorensen, the European envoy for the dialogue, said after the meeting that "the EU has high expectations from the Commission."

However, according to the acting Minister for Labor, Family and Values ​​of the Liberation War, Andin Hoti, the discovery in Zubin-Potok was not the result of the Commission.

"The excavations and discovery of mortal remains in Kalludër i Vogël in Zubin-Potoku are not related to the work of the Joint Commission on Missing Persons or to the meetings held in Brussels. This is the result of the work and investigations of the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo, including the Security Institutions, the Kosovo Police, the Governmental Commission on Missing Persons and the Institute of Forensic Medicine," Hoti said in a response to KOHĖNA.

Lack of cooperation

Hoti emphasized that despite the continued engagement of Kosovo institutions, Serbia continues to fail to provide the necessary cooperation in the process of clarifying the fate of missing persons.

"Even after the adoption of the Declaration on Missing Persons and the establishment of the Joint Commission, the Serbian side has not provided concrete information about the suspected locations. On the contrary, Serbia continues to keep closed state, military and police archives and documentation, which could help in uncovering the truth about the crimes committed during the war in Kosovo. Such an approach drags out the process and denies families the fundamental right to know the fate of their loved ones," Hoti said.

He said that so far the implementation of the Declaration on Missing Persons and the functioning of the Joint Commission have not produced the expected results, as he emphasized, precisely due to the lack of concrete cooperation from the Serbian side.

"For the Republic of Kosovo, this process cannot remain only at a declarative level, but must be accompanied by the opening of archives, the submission of documentation and the provision of verifiable information on suspected locations," Hoti declared.

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He said that Kosovo institutions will continue field investigations, verification of any information on possible locations, forensic examinations and DNA analyses, as well as coordination with families and international partners. At the same time, he said that they will continue to demand that Serbia open its archives and fulfill its obligations under the Declaration on Missing Persons.

KOHË's Brussels correspondent, Augustin Palokaj, stated that the EU considers Serbia's engagement in the dialogue as constructive.

"The European Union has consistently said that the parties should cooperate through the Joint Commission on Missing Persons, and has even described the formation of this commission and the start of its work this year as one of the biggest in the dialogue process. Also, according to diplomatic sources, the European Union has confirmed Serbia's constructive engagement in the dialogue process," Palokaj said.

KOHA has sent questions to the EU regarding the implementation of the Joint Declaration and Serbia's commitment to the commitments made, but has not received a response during the day.

The issue of enforced disappearances was also a topic of the Vienna negotiations held 20 years ago on the final status of Kosovo. However, an agreement regarding the missing was not reached until 2023.

Commitment to research

On Tuesday, teams from the Kosovo Police and the Institute of Forensic Medicine, supported by EULEX teams, went to the village of Kalludër in the municipality of Zubin Potok. It was found that there were human bodies there.

Acting President Albulena Haxhiu welcomed the news of the confirmation of the discovery of this mass grave and said that this is an important development in efforts to shed light on the fate and whereabouts of persons forcibly disappeared during the war.

"I appreciate the commitment and professional work of the teams of the Kosovo Police, the Institute of Forensic Medicine, the Government Commission for Missing Persons, the Prosecution and other justice and security institutions, which are handling this case with dedication and responsibility," Haxhiu wrote in a Facebook post. "This process will have my full support, from the comprehensive assessment of the location, the exhumation and forensic examinations, to the full identification of the victims, always in an effort to respond to the right of families to know the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones."

And, the acting Minister of Justice, Donika Gërvalla, has said that there can be no lasting peace without truth, there can be no good neighborliness without justice, and there can be no oblivion in the face of crimes committed.

According to Gërvalla, the fact that the excavations have yielded results is a positive development.

"It is good news that the excavation has yielded results and that the institutions are committed to finding the mass graves, but also to increasing pressure on Serbia: first to open the archives and second to hand over all the missing. Above all, we must ensure that such things never happen again in our country," declared the acting minister.

She visited the location where the mass grave in the village of Kalludër was confirmed and said that she has closely followed the process developed so far, as well as the steps taken as part of institutional efforts to uncover the truth and treat with full seriousness any information related to the fate of missing persons.

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“Everything is being carried out with professionalism and dedication,” she said. “The issue of persons who disappeared during the last war remains one of the most serious wounds of the war and one of the clearest evidences of the crimes committed by the genocidal Serbian state. In addition to thousands of innocent civilians, the then Serbian regime deliberately targeted the intellectual, academic and professional elite of Kosovo, in an attempt to strike at the very identity, memory and future of our people. Then, through the relocation and hiding of bodies in mass graves, it tried to erase the traces of these crimes. But the truth cannot be buried forever.”

On Tuesday, a day after two Serbs from Zubin Potok were arrested on suspicion of war crimes, excavations began in this municipality for a mass grave, where mortal remains were found.