Relatives of missing persons from the Kosovo war expressed disappointment after Kosovo’s prime minister said that a deal with Serbia to reveal grave sites is being delayed by disagreements over terminology.
This post is also available in this language: Shqip Bos/Hrv/Srp
The names of missing persons from the Kosovo war on a large plaque in Pristina. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ.
Representatives of families of ethnic Albanian and Serb missing persons from the Kosovo war said they are disappointed that a deal between Pristina and Belgrade at EU-mediated negotiations in Brussels to reveal war grave locations has not been reached yet because of disagreements over the terminology that should be used to describe missing persons.
“The [Kosovo] government did not stick to its words because it pledged the missing persons issue would be a priority on the negotiating table but in around 15 months they have talked about everything else but the missing persons, including license plates and energy,” Bajram Cerkini from the Resource Center for Missing Persons told BIRN.
“Stopping the process for completely irrelevant reasons means obstruction and suspension of the entire process,” said Natasa Scepanovic, president of the Association of Kosmet Victims.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti told media on Wednesday that one of the main obstacles hindering the possibility of Kosovo and Serbia reaching an agreement on missing persons is terminology.
“Belgrade insists on them being called people who haven’t been found, we insist on calling them forced disappearances, because they did not go missing in natural disasters. They were kidnappings, abductions which were done by force,” Kurti said.
But Cerkini said he does not understand why the terminology is being considered such a major issue.
“So they want to add that these are people who went missing by force during the war, which obviously they are because there is no war without force. I don’t know what is the proper political terminology for this agreement to be reached but I don’t see any concrete steps in shedding light on their fate,” he said.
Scepanovic said that “everything indicates that the problem is extremely politicised and therefore there is no real desire or will to find the bodies of the missing persons”.
But Agron Limani, representative of missing persons from the Kosovo village of Krushe e Vogel/Mala Krusa, where 113 ethnic Albanian civilians were killed by Serbian forces, argued that the terminology is important.
“The term ‘missing’ to us [in Krushe e Vogel/Mala Krusa] does not reflect their tragic fate because someone can even go missing due to natural disasters – flooding, fire, an earthquake… but those responsible for the missing persons were well known to us, mainly local Serbs,” Limani said.
Limani said that his concern is that “Kosovo has had a continuous handicap in the dialogue with Serbia” because it has not used “facts and evidence about the perpetrators of the crimes” to help its case.
The EU’s envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, said on Tuesday that he believes that a deal on missing persons is slose.
“We are two words closer to or two words further away from the agreement and we will even have consultations on this in the upcoming days. Ninety-nine-point-five of the text has been agreed on and now only political will is needed,” Lajcak told Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK.
On June 14, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Belgrade is ready to cooperate when it comes to the agreement.
“We are ready to sign the agreement on missing persons, we know that we have to live next to each other, we know that we have to work with each other and we have no problem with that,” Vucic told media.
There has been no official reaction yet from Belgrade to Kurti’s statement about the obstacles to a deal.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
