The joint Serbia-Kosovo Commission for the Search for Missing Persons met in Brussels at the end of the week for its first meeting since its establishment two years ago. The European Union informed about it on Friday, writes the AFP agency quoted by the TASR agency.
- The Commission of Serbia and Kosovo met for the first time in two years.
- About 1,600 missing persons cases still remain unsolved.
- The main goal is cooperation in locating graves and exchanging information.
AFP recalled that of the 6,065 people who went missing during the 1998-99 war, around 1,600 cases remain unsolved.
The first meeting in years
The first session of the commission on Thursday was led by Serbian chief negotiator Petar Petkovič and his Kosovo counterpart Besnik Bislimi. The high representative of the European Union for the dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo, Peter Sørensen, was also present. Bislimi described the negotiations as “successful”, Petkovič emphasized that it is a “humanitarian, not a political” issue.
“We will do everything necessary to find out the full truth as soon as possible and clarify the fate of all missing persons,” said Petkovič.
Goals and challenges of the commission
The declaration on missing persons was agreed in May 2023 by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučič. So far, however, only minimal progress has been made in this area.
One of the main goals of the commission is to ensure cooperation in locating graves and exchanging information for the identification of missing persons. In a statement, the EU said it had “high expectations” that the commission would help “close a painful chapter” for the families of the missing.
Historical context of the conflict
The war between Serbian troops and Albanian rebels in the 1990s left more than 13,000 dead and ended after NATO airstrikes forced military and police forces loyal to Belgrade to leave Kosovo.
Relations between the two countries are strained, Serbia still has not recognized Kosovo’s independence declared in 2008. The EU has been mediating a dialogue on the normalization of their relations for more than ten years, but it has stalled in recent years. Vučič and Kurti have not met since 2024. The resolution of bilateral relations is still crucial for the ambitions of both countries to join the EU.
EU expectations
The meeting of the search commission took place after Sørensen visited Belgrade and Pristina in early January and stressed the need to achieve concrete results this year.
