Nataša Kandić, founder of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, has said Serbia lacks the political will to open state archives that could help uncover the truth about missing persons and war crimes committed during the Kosovo conflict.
Commenting on the recent discovery of two suspected mass grave sites near Zubin Potok, Kandić said that, according to information available to her, two separate groups of Kosovo Albanians were captured and allegedly killed by Serbian police and military forces on April 19, 1999.
She argued that meaningful progress in locating missing persons and establishing accountability requires access to official wartime documentation, including police and military records that remain inaccessible.
“There is no political will in Serbia,” Kandić said, calling for stronger international engagement and pressure on Belgrade to provide information, open state archives, and allow access to police and military documents from the war period.
According to Kandić, the absence of political willingness is linked to the fact that Serbia’s current governing coalition includes political forces that supported the wartime policies of the 1990s.
She further claimed that senior Serbian officials continue to make statements that, in her view, reflect an unwillingness to confront the legacy of the conflict, including remarks suggesting regret that the ethnic cleansing campaign under former Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević was not completed.
The recent discoveries of suspected mass graves near Zubin Potok have renewed attention on unresolved cases of missing persons from the Kosovo war, with Kosovo authorities continuing forensic investigations while urging Serbia to provide access to archives that could help determine the fate of those still unaccounted for.
