Acting President of Kosovo Albulena Haxhiu and caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti paid tribute today at the Memorial for Missing Persons on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
Haxhiu said that more than 1,500 people who were forcibly disappeared during the war are still missing and that search efforts are continuing.
“Today, on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances during the last war in Kosovo, our thoughts are with the families who have been waiting for answers about their loved ones for nearly three decades. More than 1,500 people who were forcibly disappeared during the war have still not been found. For the families, the wait continues, while for the Republic of Kosovo, this remains an open chapter that will not be closed until the last person is found. Searches have not stopped, and human remains have been discovered. Just in the past month, human remains belonging to at least 23 people were found in Kalludër and Jabukë in the Zubin Potok area,” Haxhiu said.
On the occasion, caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti recalled Serbia’s commitment to cooperate in opening its archives, stressing the importance of declassifying files belonging to the former Yugoslav Army.
Kurti recalled Serbia’s declaration in which it pledged to open the archives.
He further stressed that Kosovo cannot wait until 2044 for the archives to be opened, linking their classification to the period when Aleksandar Vučić was Serbia’s Minister of Defense.
“We cannot wait until 2044 for these archives to be opened. They should have been opened yesterday, the day before yesterday. Meanwhile, they were classified precisely in 2014, when Serbia’s current president, Vučić, was Minister of Defense and also coordinator of the intelligence and security services. Just consider this: the person who is Serbia’s president today was, in 2014, when the files of the Yugoslav Army units that committed crimes in Kosovo were classified, particularly those concerning the 37th Motorized Brigade, the Minister of Defense and coordinator of Serbia’s intelligence and security services,” Kurti said.
He said the files should be opened as soon as possible and called on the European Union to put pressure on Serbia to open the archives.
Kurti said this remains an open wound for which accountability must be established.
Once again, Kurti called on Serbia to cooperate with Kosovo’s institutions to help determine the fate of missing persons.
The second day of excavations continued yesterday in the village of Kalludër e Vogël in the municipality of Zubin Potok, where Kosovo institutions are conducting search operations amid suspicions that a mass grave from the last war in Kosovo may be located at the site.
