Germany has called on Serbia to fully cooperate with Kosovo’s institutions in efforts to determine the fate of people who went missing during the 1999 Kosovo war.
The German Embassy in Kosovo also urged Belgrade to provide access to relevant documentation, following calls by Kosovo’s acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti for Serbia to open the files of the 37th Motorised Brigade of the former Yugoslav Army.
The brigade has been linked to alleged massacres in Drenica and other parts of Kosovo during the war.
The German Embassy pointed to a 2023 agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, facilitated by the European Union, under which the two sides established a Joint Commission on Missing Persons.
The commission is tasked, among other things, with securing access to relevant domestic and international documentation concerning missing people and suspected mass graves.
Germany said it expects all parties to provide “accurate and reliable” information to help establish what happened to those who remain missing.
The embassy also called on Serbia to cooperate fully with Kosovo counterparts in ongoing investigations and court proceedings.
“We expect Serbia to fully cooperate with its Kosovo counterparts in the ongoing investigations and trials, in accordance with the Agreement on Mutual Legal Assistance,” the embassy said in a response to Klan Kosova.
More than two decades after the war, the fate of many missing people remains unresolved, with families continuing to demand access to information that could help establish the whereabouts of their loved ones.
