Blakaj: I believe Sorensen will be more proactive on the issue of missing persons in Kosovo

The Director of the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo, Bekim Blakaj, believes that the new EU mediator in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Peter Sorensen, will be more proactive in addressing the fate of missing persons, which remains a political rather than a humanitarian issue.

"Sorensen has announced that the first issue he will focus on is that of missing persons, something that was agreed upon long ago and for which Prime Minister Kurti and President Vucic signed a joint Declaration. I believe Sorensen will be much more proactive on this matter because both sides still perceive it as a political rather than a humanitarian issue," Blakaj told Kosovo Online.

He is optimistic that progress will be made, especially because the agreement on missing persons includes an EU-appointed mediator.

"The agreement states that the EU mediator can even impose certain sanctions if it is determined that one or both sides are not implementing or lack the willingness to implement what was agreed upon. I hope that Peter Sorensen, particularly since he has recently taken on this role, will use his mandate to push forward the resolution of the missing persons issue," Blakaj emphasized.

He reminds that the Declaration on Missing Persons was signed two years ago, marking a crucial moment to begin addressing this issue, but no significant progress has been made since.

"It seemed like the right moment for both sides, as well as for the previous mediator, to present it as a success in the dialogue, which had been in a ‘status quo’ for a long time. I think both sides signed the agreement just to show that they had achieved something, but unfortunately, we haven’t seen any real progress in solving the issue of missing persons, and almost nothing that was agreed upon has been implemented in practice," Blakaj noted.

The success of further efforts to resolve the issue of missing persons depends on both sides.

"But so far, we haven't seen any progress. It is clear that this issue is still being treated as a political matter. Of course, the Kosovo side’s refusal to cooperate with Odalovic is an obstacle. However, another issue is that the Serbian side often links this topic to daily political developments on the ground," Blakaj concluded.