Odalovic: Kurti has been blocking the Working Group for Missing Persons for three years, which is devastating

For three years, the work of the Working Group for Missing Persons between Belgrade and Pristina has been blocked, solely by the intention of Albin Kurti to halt the process in which we had previously achieved significant results. This is devastating, but I cannot give up on the task of seeking the truth about the missing, regardless of their nationality or religion, Veljko Odalovic, the President of the Commission for Missing Persons in the Government of Serbia, stated in the latest episode of the Kontekst podcast.

Odalovic says that Albin Kurti is bothered by the Working Group for Missing Persons because its members work very transparently and cleanly.

"I cannot refrain from dealing with the issue of missing persons just because Kurti says I am Goebbels or Goring. Kurti has halted the process of searching for the missing. It is humiliating and devastating, but I cannot accept it. I simply disagree with the way Kurti and his associates are handling it. Kurti has used this to block dialogue. He is blocking the working group, but I am now going to Dubrovnik for a meeting, where their representative Hoti and their delegation will be present. For me, all families of the missing are one, both on the Serbian and Albanian sides. We have built a bridge, connecting families. Families meet in Belgrade and Pristina. The fact that the missing are not a priority topic for Albin Kurti is another matter. Serbia approaches it differently," Odalovic emphasizes.

By a decision of Pristina, he is banned from entering the territory of Kosovo.

"It has been three years, they have been banning me from entering Kosovo. It is my personal agony. They won't let me visit my father's grave, or attend funerals of relatives. I cannot visit friends, including Serbs and Albanians. Kurti won't allow me. I have spoken to Lajcak and told him if they had anything against me, they should start proceedings, and I would respond and come to Pristina. I have no problem sitting across from any of their prosecutors," Odalovic stressed.

He particularly emphasized the fact that the current Kosovo Government did not want to talk about Serbian victims.

"We must have the same approach to those who committed crimes. We need to rid ourselves of that burden, which among other things has the connotation that no one in Pristina's public scene speaks about Serbian victims, which is undeniable. Has anyone in Pristina ever talked about the Sutakovic family? We found that family in 2018 in a bunker near Djakovica, where the father, mother, and three Serbian children were killed by classic execution, as shown by the autopsy. No one has ever initiated an investigation into that. Or let's start with the miners in Belacevac, the events in Klecka, Likovac... Kosovo society must mature. They won't be able to go far until they face this. Albin Kurti is not ready to accept that the KLA committed crimes. I can understand resistance towards Serbia, the army, the police, Vucic, Dacic, that's politics. But when we clear that up, we need to look at what happened in our own backyard. We have done the most work regarding missing persons. And more than 400 Albanians were killed after June 1999 in their political showdowns," Odalovic said among other things in the Kontekst podcast.

The entire episode with Veljko Odalovic, who also spoke about other current topics related to the Kosovo crisis, can be watched in the video attachment.