Fourth Sitting of the Committee on Kosovo-Metohija

At the beginning of the sitting, Committee Chairperson MA Danijela Nikolic stressed that Serbia will not give up on answering decades-old unanswered questions concerning missing persons, such as: who is responsible for covering up crimes, moving graves, and trafficking in the organs of kidnapped Serbs and non-Albanian populations. She also pointed out that Serbia is doing everything in its power to depoliticise these humanitarian issues in order to reach the real truth and answers.

Odalovic informed the attendees about the difficult and complex problems, which, as he pointed out, are still at the very centre of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, as well as further plans concerning the work of the body formed by the Government to search for missing persons. Odalovic pointed out that at the beginning of the mandate, 6,006 persons were registered as missing from the territory of Kosovo-Metohija, and that today that number has been reduced to 1,590 persons, who are listed as missing, of whom 568 of Serbian nationality have been reported to the Commission. The President of the Commission pointed out that crimes against persons who have not yet been found took place in the territories of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo-Metohija. He stated that the coordinated activities of Zagreb and Pristina are blocking the process of solving crimes, and are avoiding their obligations despite international agreements and protocols by which they have committed themselves to solving these cases. He said that the Commission has so far identified 388 persons of Serbian nationality in the territory of Kosovo-Metohija, and that 43 soldiers and police officers are among the unidentified. He also criticised international organisations that are not ready to help restart the search for the missing, despite ample evidence indicating the location of graves of persons who have not yet been found. He stressed that the Commission will not stop its work until the fates of all the missing are clarified.

In addition to the Committee members and deputy members, the sitting was attended by representatives of the Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, Missing Persons' Association, Office for Coordination of Affairs in the Process of Negotiation with the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Pristina, the Ombudsman, Public Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes, Service for the Detection of War Crimes, as well as representatives of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija.

The sitting was chaired by Committee Chairperson MA Danijela Nikolic.