Odalovic to Kosovo authorities: Closing your eyes to the fact that Serbs are also missing is an evasion of responsibility

The President of Serbia’s Government Commission on Missing Persons, Veljko Odalovic, stated that, on the eve of the International Day of the Disappeared (30 August), tribute must be paid to all victims, regardless of nationality. Reminding that 569 Serbs are still registered as missing, he emphasized that it is cynical for Kosovo officials to mention only Serbia’s obligations in this matter, and he called on Pristina to open graves and share with Belgrade the data it possesses.

Odalovic was responding to today’s accusations from Kosovo’s acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti, President Vjosa Osmani, and the new Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly, Dimal Basha, who, while laying a wreath at the Monument to the Missing in Pristina, called on Serbia to reveal the fate of the missing and to stop what they described as “the daily crime of denying and concealing mass graves.”

He asked who, then, killed so many Serbs whose bodies are in mass graves across Kosovo.

“In Kosovo and Metohija, Serbs, Albanians, Roma, Gorani… all went missing. At the very least, it is cynical today to speak only of Serbia’s obligations under the Brussels Agreement, since we are all together in the process of searching for the missing and must behave as such. As of today, 569 Serbs are still missing. We ask the authorities in Kosovo to open their graves and share with us the data from their archives, the archives of the so-called KLA. We shared with them the information from our archives — we gave them 2,417 documents — and in return we have not received a single one,” Odalovic told Kosovo Online.

He added that, through cooperation between Serbia’s working group within the Commission on Missing Persons and the Kosovo side, the remains of 914 Kosovo Albanians have been found to date. According to him, Belgrade is approaching this process and its obligations with full responsibility.

“Pristina, on the other hand, is not acting upon Serbia’s requests. What about the morgue in Pristina where we know with certainty there are at least 80 bodies of Serbian nationality? Kurti halted the mechanism of the working group in his second term. Until then, we had been meeting successfully and resolving cases, and we never divided victims along ethnic lines,” Odalovic noted, appealing to the Pristina authorities to stop accusing Serbia.

“On this day, closing one’s eyes to the fact that Serbs are also missing, that they too are victims, represents an evasion of responsibility. We call on them to work together in line with the declaration signed by Kurti and Vucic. We must open the archives of the so-called KLA. The very fact that KLA leaders are on trial in The Hague, with extensive evidence presented of crimes against Serbs, proves that both sides bear responsibility. There can be no progress in the process of searching for the missing if this approach of blame continues. That is a misuse of the process,” Odalovic concluded.