Petkovic: There is no term "enforced disappearance" in the Declaration; we foiled Pristina's plan

The director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, announced that in the text of the Declaration on Missing Persons, which had been agreed yesterday in Brussels, thanks to the efforts of Belgrade, the term "enforced disappearances" had been dropped, which was a legal category defined by an international convention and which would imply direct the legal responsibility of the State of Serbia for all cases of disappearances during the conflict in Kosovo.

Petkovic stated in the statement that instead of that term, the term "forcibly disappeared" had been adopted, which was not a legal category and was not found in any international convention, but only described the circumstances under which the disappearance had occurred and therefore could not produce any legal effect on the interests of the State of Serbia, nor its responsibility.

According to him, it was therefore quite clear that Pristina and Andin Hoti were deceiving and dissuading the public with incorrect interpretations that the term "enforced disappearance" was accepted and that they would be able to demand the responsibility of the state, because this was absolutely not true and he knew it.

"Besides the obvious politicization of this highly humane topic, the dissatisfaction of Pristina is understandable, which failed in its plan to accuse Serbia of all cases of disappearances in Kosovo and Metohija and to attribute the atrocities of the so-called KLA to Belgrade, which was their intention from the beginning, which we saw through and thwarted,” Petkovic stated.

He adds that the Serbian negotiating team managed to protect Serbia's interests in Brussels when it comes to missing persons, but also that, from the very beginning of this process, they showed their readiness to solve this important issue, deeply convinced that the families of all innocent victims deserve peace without any politicization.

"Unfortunately, Pristina continues to politicize this topic and use it for daily political calculations and its internal political circumstances, but we will be guided exclusively by facts and arguments, as before," Petkovic said.