Where did the issue of discovering the fate of missing persons in Kosovo get stuck?

The issue of the fate of the missing persons in Kosovo was one of the topics that were discussed in the latest talks in Ohrid, and it was agreed that Belgrade and Pristina should urgently accept the Declaration on Missing Persons. However, experts on the subject are not optimistic that there will be rapid progress because the approaches of the two parties in solving this problem differ significantly.

According to the latest data, 1,621 persons are still missing in Kosovo.

The President of the Commission for Missing Persons of the Government of Serbia, Veljko Odalovic, has repeatedly emphasized that the authorities in Pristina do not want to cooperate in resolving the cases of missing persons in Kosovo and Metohija. According to his earlier statements, the working group has solved 1,800 cases so far.

"It was done based on the information we had, and for the first time, we came clean to Pristina with our request for dozens of locations in Kosovo that we gave, but Albin Kurti stopped the process, and there is no response to our requests. The entire process is frozen," Odalovic stated recently.

What creates an additional problem, however, is the wording that Pristina insists on being included in official documents, which refers to "enforced disappearances." Belgrade has repeatedly said that the term is inadequate because it refers to states and because, in that way, Pristina would transfer the responsibility for everything that happened on Kosovo's territory to Serbia.

Dusko Celic, president of the Coordination of Serbian Associations of Families of the Missing, Murdered, and Dead Persons from the Territory of Former Yugoslavia, states for Kosovo Online that he does not expect any concession from Pristina regarding the missing persons agreement.

"Honestly, given the general atmosphere and the general Brussels structure with the negotiations, I don't expect it. I don't expect any concessions from Pristina. It's unfortunate, but Pristina is politicizing, and it also puts the issue of missing persons in the context of the status of so-called Kosovo, which is primarily a question of civilization and must not be viewed in that context. They insist on the term "enforced disappearances", which would then represent the sole responsibility of Serbia for the disappearances and murders in Kosovo and Metohija. As we can see in connection with this issue, Pristina has its own unilateral agenda, according to which one side – Serbia – is solely responsible, which is unacceptable. We know how many people of Serbian nationality have been killed by the terrorist KLA, and therefore the responsibility for that lies with Pristina. That is why I do not expect Serbia to accept such a thing, and I do not expect Pristina to take any step towards compromise," Celic says.

The executive director of the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo, Bekim Blakaj, points out for Kosovo Online that they hoped, but also expected, that the issue of missing persons would be addressed more seriously in Ohrid than just through a joint statement.

"Both sides have said that they will do everything in their power to find the missing persons. The issue of terminology has not been addressed, but what is important for me is that this issue will be monitored by the joint commission that will be formed by the international community's parties and that it will not remain a dead letter on paper. Earlier, after the meetings, the parties made statements that they were committed to doing everything in their power to find the missing persons, but we have not seen that in practice. However, I believe they will have to do something this time because someone will monitor the entire process," Blakaj says.

"I can no longer be pessimistic. There have been no developments in the past two or three years, but as I said, this will be a monitored and evaluated process now, and since financial assistance will be denied if obligations are not met, I believe that both sides should do something concrete this time," Blakaj emphasizes.