Kurti: The truth about the massacres in Kosovo, locked in the archives of Serbia

On the occasion of the International Day of Violently Disappeared Persons, Prime Minister Albin Kurti together with the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Saranda Bogujevci, the Chief Diplomat Donika Gërvalla and family members of the disappeared paid tribute at the memorial dedicated to the persons who disappeared violently during the war in Kosovo. The relatives of the disappeared have expressed disappointment with the local and international institutions regarding the efforts to clarify their fate.

The truth about a large number of crimes and massacres committed in Kosovo can be found in the state archives of Serbia, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Friday in marking the International Day of Persons Disappeared by Violence during the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo.

After the tributes he paid near the memorial dedicated to the persons who disappeared violently during the war, Kurti repeated the call to Serbia to open the military archives.

"In 2014, ten years ago, the archive of the 37th Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army was classified by decision in Serbia for 30 years, this is why it will not be opened until 2044... There is the truth, because this brigade has committed a large number of massacres in Kosovo, especially in the region of Drenica. Therefore, we call once again on the international factors, as they have helped us, by putting pressure on Serbia to start this excavation in Sanjak between Tutin and Novi Pazar, to put pressure on Belgrade to change the decision, to make a decision new and the archive of the motorized brigade 37 of the Yugoslav army should be opened", Kurti emphasized.

Bajram Qerkini, the president of the "Voice of Parents" association, has expressed disappointment with both local and international institutions in terms of efforts to clarify the fate of missing persons.

"How much have we done to find out the fate of the missing, we as family members are very disappointed, we are not satisfied with the local or international institutions because Brussels is to blame, where the international ones do not give an order that those who know they show where our loved ones are", said Qerkini.

Present at the tributes held near the memorial dedicated to missing persons, the ambassador of the United States of America (USA) in Kosovo, Jeff Hovenier, asked the institutions and officials to overcome the differences and solve the issue of the missing persons. .
On the note of this day, Prime Minister Kurti also met the women of Krusha e Vogël, whom the Government supported with the measure for economic empowerment and with whom he discussed the achievements and future plans of these self-employment initiatives.

also Arberi 2 months ago Kurti demands the opening of archives from Serbia to clarify the fate of the missing

After the end of the war in Kosovo, in 1999, about 6.500 people were missing. Since that time, several exhumations have been carried out in mass cemeteries in Kosovo and Serbia, while up to now about 70 percent of the missing have been found. 

The last excavations were done in May, in the mass cemetery in Kizhevak of Rashka in Serbia, where the remains of nine Kosovars, killed during the war, were found.

More than 1 people are still considered missing from the 600-1998 war in Kosovo.