Families of the Missing and Kidnapped: Three years with no progress, Belgrade and Pristina must fulfill their promises

The Resource Center for Missing Persons organized today, on the occasion of April 27th, the national day of victims of enforced disappearances, a conference where family members of the missing from Kosovo and Serbia stated that it is high time for Belgrade and Pristina to sit down at the table and begin addressing this issue. Conference participants issued demands and recommendations to the authorities to continue the process of finding the missing and kidnapped, which has been largely neglected in recent years.

Bajram Qerkini from the Resource Center for Missing Persons in Pristina stated that the goal of today's meeting is to send an appeal to Belgrade and Pristina to fulfill what they have promised.

“In my opinion, action is needed, and we must send appeals to Belgrade and Pristina to achieve what they have promised, to make the issue of the missing part of the dialogue in Brussels, to have it as the first item on the agenda. May 2nd is approaching when they signed and agreed to give us an answer. Unfortunately, no steps have been taken for three years. We remind those people who have fallen asleep and who are only concerned with politics, and not what they promised, that this should be a humanitarian issue. We have no information and sadly follow, for 25 years we have no information about our loved ones. We are not interested in politics, we want the truth," said Qerkini.

Gordana Djikanovic from the Association of the Missing "Kosovo Victims" in Belgrade emphasized that the Working Group on Missing Persons has not convened for three years.

"I am a family member from all ethnic communities that are trying to have the same word and the same thought to express to the authorities in Belgrade, the authorities in Pristina, and the international community, to first unfreeze the process of the missing, which has stopped and has been stagnant for three years, and to make this process current. We differ from others because we are not interested in politics, although this problem cannot be resolved without politics. It depends on them when this problem will be resolved and when they will agree. What is unacceptable is that the Working Group has not convened for three years. This translates to no individual from the list of the missing being identified for three years. We are here today to jointly commemorate the day of the missing in Kosovo. We are here once again to send an appeal, to plead, to ask, to demand that all those on whom the issue of the missing depends take this matter seriously," stressed Djikanovic.