On the International Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Prime Minister Albin Kurti, along with Deputy Speaker of the Assembly Saranda Bogujevci and Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla, paid tribute at the monument dedicated to the victims of enforced disappearances during the war in Kosovo.
Alongside institutional leaders, the tribute was also attended by several accredited ambassadors in Kosovo and representatives of associations of families of the disappeared.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti stated that since the end of the war, there has been a lack of willingness on the part of Serbia to allow excavations in locations suspected of containing mass graves. He noted that excavations have taken place at five locations, while thousands of others have been conducted in Kosovo.
“Over 94 percent of those who were exhumed and returned as bodies in Kosovo were found in the last months of 2000 and 2001, following the fall of Milošević’s regime in Serbia, in the mass graves in Batajnica and Peručac. From these mass graves, a total of 900 Albanians—women, children, and the elderly—were exhumed. After that, there were no more excavations, and from 2010 to 2021, 61 more Albanians were exhumed from two mass graves. The majority of the excavations occurred in the early months following Milošević’s fall, and there has been no further willingness for excavations in Serbia since then, while in Kosovo, we have had 2,800 excavations over these 25 years,” Kurti said.
