Qerkinaj and Mavric: Missing persons are not a political issue, an urgent meeting of Working Groups is needed

Since 2021, the work of the Working Groups from Pristina and Belgrade on missing persons has been suspended. The major issue is that politicians are interfering in an issue that should not be related to politics, agreed Negovan Mavric and Bajram Qerkinaj from the Resource Center for Missing Persons in Pristina.

At the Resource Center for Missing Persons in Pristina, Negovan Mavric and Bajram Qerkinaj have been working together since 2017 to shed light on the fate of missing persons.

"The Resource Center was established in Kosovo, and it's multi-ethnic, bringing together those who share the same pain, which is not knowing the fate of the missing for 24 years. Since we were formed, I think we've managed to convey to the Government in Belgrade and in Kosovo that we, the families, have agreed to discuss a painful issue. Over 2,000 people have visited our office and received assistance; we have had meetings throughout Kosovo. Not only in Kosovo but also in Serbia. Some people left due to the conflict, feeling unsafe in Kosovo, but we continue to work with them," Bajram Qerkinaj said, who, apart from searching for his son, is also doing so for the 1,611 other individuals listed as missing according to the center's data.

Since 2021, the work of the Working Groups from Pristina and Belgrade has been suspended, leaving families without information about the missing. What was contentious for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti is that Veljko Odalovic heads the Commission for Missing Persons in Belgrade.

"Because of one man, the entire work stopped. The Working Groups didn't meet. Although they say subgroups and experts were formed, there are no results. It's possible to resolve this issue very easily if politics were willing to step back, and this became a humane matter, not a political one. Politics intervened, and it didn't allow this very painful process to move forward. Very few families are informed about what has been done because they haven't met with families to explain. However, we, as leaders, try to inform them about the situation through the media," Qerkinaj emphasized.

He believes that a swift resolution and clarification of the fate of the missing persons could be achieved if the international community became more actively involved in the process because, he emphasizes, regardless of everything, the Serbs and the Albanians must continue to live together.

"I still beg, first Belgrade and Pristina, second, the international community, to sit down and agree. To find a way to reach an agreement and to take our organization as an example," Qerkinaj said.

Negovan Mavric's brother disappeared in 1999. Although the family found and buried his body in 2004, Negovan continues to fight for justice, reminding of the founding purpose of the Resource Center.

"The goal was because we were wandering in the wrong directions, both Serbs and Albanians. Perhaps it would be best for families to unite, family members, and start searching for missing persons together because that's what interests us, not politics and everything else. This is why the Resource Center was formed, to bring families together and to exert pressure on the relevant authorities and institutions dealing with missing persons," Mavric said.

The non-meeting of the two presidents of the Commissions for the Missing in Belgrade and Pristina, Veljko Odalovic and Andin Hoti, only complicates the whole process, Mavric stresses.

"Unfortunately, since 2021, there has been no work of the Working Groups or the presidents of the Working Groups. Some analytical teams and subgroups are working, but that is not what we, the families, need and would bring results. We now have no one to ask for answers. We have no one to ask for ways to solve something because if they don't meet, there will be no exhumations," Mavric said.

For Mavric, it is no accident that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti declared Odalovic a "persona non grata".

"It is known that Kurti, as I like to say, has laid his hand on the work of the Working Group, probably for his known goal, by characterizing Mr. Odalovic as a war criminal. Probably he knows why he did that. We, the families, think that it's not accidental because if there is no work from the Working Groups, the process stops, and I think that at this moment, families suffer a lot because, as I said before, the politics that has been going on for a long time is evidence that Kurti probably did it intentionally because, for two years, we don't have teams in the field," Mavric said.

Since the cessation of cooperation of the Working Groups, Mavric reminded, that there was hardly any excavation of locations suspected to contain missing persons, and even if that was the case, he emphasized that only one side was doing it without informing the other.

"I recently had the opportunity to hear that several locations have been checked, I think one yielded results, that one body was found, I think it's in Mitrovica or Djakovica, but the Albanians did it on their own. Who knows who is lying in that grave, does anyone know who is in that grave? What if there are also Serb bodies in that grave? That is why we need the work of both Working Groups, both teams dealing with missing persons and dealing with excavation, together with EULEX. In this way, one side works for itself. As far as I know, to be impartial, Albanian families have attended every location in Serbia where excavation was done to get to know the location, see what was done, and how far it went. Unfortunately, it is not the case here for Serbian families to be invited to see where excavation is done, whether it is individual or mass graves. That's why we need joint work, that teams doing excavation sit together, both Albanian and Serbian sides, and of course EULEX, and all others who deal with it," Mavric emphasized.

Representatives of Belgrade and Pristina adopted the Declaration on Missing Persons on May 2, but despite high expectations from families, nothing significant has changed, Mavric says.

"We all expected that Declaration, which is sponsored by the European Union and others, and we thought it was the right thing and that it would start. However, four months have passed, and this Declaration is not being respected at all, at least that's how we see and feel it. We can write and accept declarations as declarations, but what about respect on the ground? They say there should be a joint Commission, then how many Commissions are needed to solve the issue of missing persons?" Mavric said.

When asked if he was in contact with the President of the Commission on Missing Persons in Pristina, Andin Hoti, Mavric emphasized that he was, but it didn't yield results.

"It's not enough for me to have contact if the families don't have contact because I am also a part of the family. We need Andin Hoti and Veljko Odalovic to sit down together, to set politics aside. Politics got us into this. To be honest, when I heard that Andin Hoti would be the President of the Commission in Pristina, I was happy because I know he is one of us, his father went missing. However, politics stopped him from meeting with Odalovic, and now we have to call Odalovic, and then we have to call Hoti, why? Let both of them sit down, if it can't happen here, if it can't happen in Serbia, we, as family members of the Association, went to Norway to meet there, so why can't they meet anywhere? I think their work, their meeting will bring us a lot in finding out what happened to the missing persons," Mavric said.