Odalovic: After 25 years, three families of abducted Serbs can finally bury their loved ones.

Veljko Odalovic, the President of the Government's Commission for Missing Persons, announced during the handover of the remains of three individuals of Serbian nationality at the Merdare administrative crossing that the families Milenkovic, Đapa, and Mladenovic have, after 25 years, reached the day when the identities of their loved ones have been confirmed.

"The bodies have been in the morgue in Pristina all this time, and with additional efforts and taking new blood samples, we have determined their identities," said Odalovic.

He added that they disappeared after the arrival of the international mission in Kosovo.

"Some, it is now certain from the autopsy reports, were already killed at that time. This is a great disgrace for the some fifty thousand peacekeepers who allowed such a savage mob, which called itself the 'liberation army,' to deal with the old and helpless in such a brutal way. All three were over 50 years old, the youngest just over 50, and Perka was 77. This speaks to the attempt to eradicate everything Serbian that remained after the arrival of the international mission. At the request of the family, we will organize funerals, one in Velika Plana, another in Krusevac, and a third in Belgrade. That is the duty of the Commission," emphasized Odalovic.

He emphasized that the bodies were in the morgue in Pristina, where there are still at least 300 unidentified bodies, among which at least 90 are of Serbian nationality.

"This is what concerns us, because the intensity of cooperation with Pristina, or their delegation within the working group, has been in total stagnation for several years. In Brussels, we hoped that when the dialogue was relocated and the topic received support, we would get new momentum, a new quality, new information. However, thanks to a unilateral decision by Albin Kurti, the entire process has been frozen. We cannot reconcile ourselves with this," stated the president of the Commission for Missing Persons.

As he emphasizes, these are bodies that were found more than twenty years ago.

"We have no new locations, nor exhumations. We don't have much of what we should be doing as we did until three years ago when the process was blocked. At one working meeting, we exchanged a lot of information between the Pristina side and our side. The agreement was that these days, if we can organize it, a meeting of the working group would be held where we would create a schedule of activities taking into account the demands of the families of Serbs, Albanians, and all others. To go to the locations, search them, and give the families the information they ask from us. From our side, this is open; we are ready and have made concessions. Whether the other side will understand this and prioritize the families and their tragedies is up to them. So far, politics have been the priority, they have not cared about the families of either Albanians or Serbs, which particularly concerns us. For us and our mandate, this is a civilizational and humanitarian issue. Today, we still have 1,613 individuals from the conflicts in the Kosovo and Metohija area listed as missing, of which 516 are of Serbian nationality, and the rest are Albanians," says Odalovic.

He emphasizes that until three years ago, when the process was halted, they had found, identified, and handed over to families 385 individuals of Serbian nationality.

"There is still much work to be done, even though more than 6,000 missing persons have been recorded in total so far, and more than 75 percent of cases have been resolved. However, we are interested in the fate of the remaining ones. We want to approach this problem without any differences and act upon the demands of the Pristina side, but we also want them to have the same attitude towards our demands and the demands of our families. The victims are equally grievous in this regard, and those of us with mandates must deal with it. As far as I am concerned, in terms of the Commission for Missing Persons and the working group, we have absolute support from all state organs in the Republic of Serbia. I have not been hindered by any action or act so far. We have locations that are certain, some from international archives, some from our archives, and we seek to verify them. They have some of their own, and we agree to that," said Odalovic.

He highlighted that two more individuals have been identified, but they will be buried in Kosovo.

"One family expressed a wish for it to be at the Orthodox cemetery in Pristina where they will bury their member, and the other burial will be in Djakovica, involving a family of Roma nationality. This confirms that we are ready, respecting the demands of the families and all that is a priority above all to honor that. We will be with them in every place and do everything for them. The message is that Brussels and Geneva, since this working group is chaired by the International Committee of the Red Cross, make additional efforts to persuade Pristina to return to this process so that we can give families as many answers as possible and, like these families today, enable them to find some peace and closure, to resolve the fate of their missing, to have a grave and a place to go to light a candle or bow, whatever anyone does according to their religious customs. We owe this to the victims and their families," concluded the president of the Commission.