Kosovo’s acting president, Albulena Haxhiu, and acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti paid tribute at the Memorial to Missing Persons on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
Haxhiu said that more than 1,500 people who disappeared by force during the last war in Kosovo are still missing and that efforts to find them are continuing.
“For the families, the wait continues, while for the Republic of Kosovo this remains an open chapter that will not be closed until the last missing person is found,” Haxhiu said.
She stated that in the past month alone, human remains belonging to at least 23 people were found in Kalludër and Jabukë, in Zubin Potok.
Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti recalled the declaration of May 2, 2023, through which, according to him, Serbia had pledged to cooperate in opening the archives.
Kurti called in particular for the declassification of files related to the 37th Motorised Brigade of the Yugoslav Army.
“One of the most important files that must be declassified is that of the Yugoslav Army’s 37th Motorised Brigade, which committed many massacres in Kosovo, particularly in Drenica,” Kurti said.
He stressed that Kosovo’s institutions cannot wait another 18 years for these archives to be opened.
“We cannot wait until 2044 for these archives to be opened. They should have been opened yesterday, or the day before,” Kurti said.
The acting prime minister said that the files in question were classified in 2014 and linked that period to the role that, according to him, Serbia’s current president Aleksandar Vučić held at the time.
Kurti called for the archives to be opened as soon as possible and urged the European Union to put pressure on Serbia.
“They must be opened as soon as possible,” he stressed.
Kurti thanked the ambassadors accredited to Kosovo who attended the commemoration, while at the same time calling for greater involvement from the international community.
“We call on all international actors, especially the European Union, which Serbia aims to join and from which Serbia receives hundreds of millions in funding, to put pressure on Serbia to open these files,” Kurti said.
He stressed that more than 1,500 families continue to live with the anguish and pain of not knowing what happened to their loved ones.
“There are more than 1,500 missing persons whose families live with anxiety, grief and suffering that we can neither fully describe nor fully understand,” Kurti said.
According to him, the issue of missing persons remains an “open wound” for which the truth must be established and responsibility determined.
Kurti also referred to excavations in northern Kosovo, where two mass graves have been discovered in Kalludër, one containing 13 sets of human remains and the other six.
He said that a third mass grave containing at least four sets of human remains had also been identified in the village of Jabukë.
In conclusion, Kurti once again called on Serbia to cooperate with Kosovo’s institutions in clarifying the fate of people who went missing during the war.
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