PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s rulers have called for justice for the 1,621 people still missing from the 1998-99 war with neighboring Serbia.
During Kosovo’s National Day of Missing Persons, President Vjosa Osmani said in a statement: “The violent disappearance of thousands of our citizens, including children, was a clear effort to wipe out the population.”
The war broke out when the majority Albanians in Kosovo, then a Serb province, rebelled against the Belgrade government, which responded with brutal repression. Some 13,000 people died.
In 1999, a NATO military intervention forced Serbia to withdraw from the territory. Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, not recognized by Serbia.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti paid his respects at a memorial to the missing in the capital Pristina.
“We need justice. We need them to be held accountable. We need the criminals, the perpetrators, the perpetrators and those responsible to be behind bars,” Kurti declared.
The issue of the missing is part of an 11-point plan by the European Union to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Kurti is scheduled to meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels next week for meetings.
The European Union mission in Kosovo, or EULEX, has carried out 725 operations on the ground and 197 exhumations, which have allowed the identification of 332 missing persons.
“These figures do not mean much to those who have not yet found their loved ones,” said forensic anthropologist Luísa Marinho.
EULEX said that it had been difficult to find the bodies. Many were buried in small, unmarked graves, or even in cemeteries, in an effort by the perpetrators to make it more difficult to find the missing and hide evidence.
Although most of the missing are ethnic Albanians, a few are Serbs.
EULEX stated that it lacks new and credible information on the location of the graves. He has complained that not all families of the missing have provided blood samples for DNA analysis, making it difficult for experts to identify the remains.