Today marks the International Day of the Disappeared. Once again, the date passes amid mutual accusations over who is obstructing the process of clarifying the fate of more than 1,600 people who went missing during the last war in Kosovo — and in the mourning of one’s own victims.
Families of the missing are once again demanding what, for them, is essential: the truth about the fate of their loved ones. Their hopes rest first on the joint declaration on the missing, and then on the commission tasked with implementing it.
A reminder of human suffering and the importance of a humanitarian approach
On the International Day of the Disappeared, former RECOM associate and international affairs political scientist Jovan Milosavljević stresses that this day serves as an important reminder that human suffering must not be forgotten.
“The right of families to know the fate of their loved ones, and the right of the disappeared for their suffering to be remembered with dignity, goes beyond the national prefix of their names,” Milosavljević told KoSSev.
He added that a disappearance during conflict is one of the gravest humanitarian consequences of war, noting that in many cases there is neither a gravesite for the family to commemorate nor accountability for the perpetrators.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, more than 35,000 people went missing during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia.
Milosavljević emphasized that by working together on this issue, the successor states of the former Yugoslavia can show that it transcends day-to-day political tensions. “People must not be reduced to numbers — their names and surnames should stand as proof that relations can be built in the spirit of the best possible cooperation, at least when humanitarian issues are at stake,” he said.
He also pointed out that this day takes on special meaning at a time when we are witnessing the suffering and disappearance of people in conflicts around the world.
But is that really the case in practice? For decades, every nation — or government — has counted only its own victims. This year is no different: Albanians remember theirs, Serbs theirs.
Thousands missing in the wars of the 1990s
According to the latest data, a total of 9,733 people are still listed as missing from the wars of the 1990s across the former Yugoslavia, including Croatia.
The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), through its Kosovo Memory Book project, states that between January 1, 1998, and December 31, 2000, 10,093 civilians were killed and/or went missing in Kosovo: 8,645 Albanians, 1,013 Serbs, 262 Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians, 84 Bosniaks, and 203 people of other nationalities.
By the end of the conflict in June 1999, it was estimated that between 4,400 and 4,500 people had gone missing. Around 6,065 cases in total were registered.
To date, more than 4,000 cases have been resolved through the efforts of international organizations such as the ICMP (International Commission on Missing Persons) and the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross).
Since 1999, the ICMP has helped identify thousands of human remains using DNA analysis. In 2025 alone, more than 74,000 reference DNA samples have been collected for the Western Balkans, covering around 24,626 missing persons in the region. For Kosovo, as of the beginning of this year, 533 remains have been identified, including 367 missing.
Today, 1,603 people are still listed as missing in Kosovo, according to HLC data. On this day last year, HLC data said that the number was 1,636. Therefore, 33 remains have since been identified.
The Pristina morgue – more than 400 bodies awaiting identification
While both sides continue to accuse each other and point to mass graves in Serbia and Kosovo, the message from last year’s press conference held by families of the missing was clear: both governments must double their efforts to identify human remains, including more than 400 bodies at the Pristina morgue.
The ICMP reports that 97% of DNA samples from families of the missing have been collected, but in more than 1,700 cases — including those at the Pristina morgue — no match has yet been found.
In April 2022, EULEX announced that, together with Kosovo authorities, it was reviewing all remains in this institution. In May 2025, KoSSev requested an interview with EULEX’s chief forensic expert Dr. Luiza Marinho, but the mission replied that she was currently unavailable.
Mistakes in identification
The identification process has not been free of mistakes, especially when traditional methods — visual recognition — were used.
The most infamous case is that of Rajko Milenković from North Mitrovica, who went missing on November 14, 1999, in the village of Bukos. His remains were found and exhumed in 2000, but in 2003 they were mistakenly handed over to an Albanian family from Klina.
Although a DNA match existed, Milenković’s family received his remains only in 2014 — 14 years after his disappearance and more than a decade after the identification. UNMIK admitted the error at the time.
Agreements and declarations – promises without results
As far back as 2002, three key protocols were signed: on cross-border repatriation of identified remains, on the exchange of forensic experts and expertise, and on joint verification teams for hidden detention sites.
A decade later, in 2012, it was agreed in Brussels that the issue of the missing would be included among priority topics in dialogue. Only in 2023 did Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti adopt the Declaration on the Missing, and a year later it committed Belgrade and Pristina to cooperate on locating and identifying hundreds of people still listed as missing.
In December 2024, chief negotiators Petar Petković and Besnik Bislimi agreed to form a commission to implement the Declaration. But to this day, the only announced meeting of the working group was for June 26 in Geneva — with no information on whether it actually took place.
International support
Organizations such as the ICRC and ICMP continue to maintain DNA databases and support families of the missing. In August 2025, the ICMP held a meeting with the Kosovo Commission and War Crimes Police.
The EU also funds projects like Uncovering the Truth, which supports families of the missing through interviews and advocacy.
“Political will is the main obstacle,” Bekim Blakaj, executive director of the HLC Kosovo, stressed earlier in June for KoSSev, noting that his organization was among the first to propose that the issue of the missing be included in the Brussels dialogue.
On the eve of the International Day of the Disappeared, Blakaj told Koha that the issue is still being treated as political rather than humanitarian: “There were high hopes after the December 2024 agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, but the meetings were suspended. The European Union has not done enough to prioritize the issue.”
Meanwhile, member of Kosovo’s government commission on the missing, Kushtrim Gara, told the same outlet that Pristina regularly addresses the issue in dialogue and uses all available mechanisms.
Wreaths and messages in Pristina
On the eve of the International Day of the Disappeared, Kosovo institutions, international partners and civil society organizations reminded the public that the fate of 1,584 people missing from the Kosovo war remains unknown, while families continue to seek truth and justice.
International diplomats, including the British, German and French ambassadors, U.S. chargé d’affaires Ana Pratipati, and EULEX representatives, paid tribute to the missing in Pristina.
The U.S. Embassy posted on Facebook: “We stand in solidarity with their families and reaffirm our commitment to truth and justice. Every family deserves answers about the fate of their loved ones.”
British Ambassador Jonathan Hargreaves recalled the recently deceased “Baca Bajram” (Bajram Qerkini), father of a missing young man who became a symbol of the families’ struggle: “We discussed the need for all of us to carry his legacy forward—to raise awareness, open doors, and encourage institutions in Kosovo and Serbia to work together to unblock the obstacles to knowing the truth.”
EULEX stressed the importance of clarifying the fate of around 1,590 missing and expressed support for local NGOs documenting families’ testimonies.
Kurti presents framework for documenting Serbia’s “economic crimes”
Caretaker Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, presenting a “new methodology” for documenting “economic crimes,” stated that the Kosovo war was “a project of destruction, looting and expropriation by Serbian forces, with planned and organized crimes.”
He stressed that documenting crimes, aside from being an institutional obligation, is also a moral debt to the victims: “Every document and every testimony is an act of respect and a promise that Serbia’s crimes in Kosovo will never be forgotten.”
Speaking at the “Institute for War Crimes,” established in November 2023 with strong government backing, Kurti said it now houses more than 345 linear meters of physical documents and 23.6 terabytes of digital material collected from over 500 different sources.
On the eve of the International Day of the Disappeared, Kurti, together with President Vjosa Osmani and Assembly Speaker Glauk Konjufca, also laid flowers at the memorial to the missing in Pristina.
He claimed that in the past two years Kosovo has carried out more than 40 investigative activities at sites within Kosovo (23 + 18), but that no work has been conducted at sites in Serbia, including Batajnica and Kožlje, despite agreements.
“The truth lies in Serbia’s archives, and it is our obligation to demand it be brought to light,” said Kurti, once again stressing what he called “Serbia’s genocide in Kosovo.”
Kurti thanked international partners for their professional and technological support in the search for the missing, but at the same time urged more pressure on Belgrade.
“In their archives and among their officials lies the truth that remains hidden — along with responsibility for what happened to us, the victims of the last Serbian genocide against the Albanian people of Kosovo.”
Yesterday, a new memorial was unveiled in Pristina — artists Dea Gjinovci and Armand de Benoist de Gentissart carved by hand the names of more than 1,600 missing onto wooden panels installed in the city center.
Gracanica – Belgrade: Tired of empty promises
At the same time, families of Serbian victims in Gracanica said they are tired of empty promises. Ljiljana Marinković, coordinator of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Serbs, accused EULEX of “betraying families’ trust” by sharing confidential information with Kosovo police.
Families of missing Serbs still feel neglected. Duško Čelić, president of the Coordination of Serbian Associations of Families of the Missing, Killed and Fallen, criticized the state for delays in adopting the Law on the Missing.
“Families of the missing have been waiting for this law since 2019, when President Vučić endorsed it. Since then, four ministers have changed, and the working group completed the draft as far back as February 2025. We still don’t know the fate of that text,” Čelić said at a joint event with government representatives in Belgrade on the eve of today’s commemoration.
He also stressed that families expect a dignified monument to the victims and pointed to the lack of coverage in school textbooks and media about Serbian suffering during the 1990s. “The state is not the sponsor of the International Day of the Disappeared, and families are still waiting for truth and justice,” he said.
Veljko Odalović, president of the Serbian Commission on Missing Persons, said that 2,322 missing persons of Serbian nationality have been found to date from all wars on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. Representatives of family associations criticized the authorities for failing to adopt the Law on the Missing, despite the draft being finalized in February this year.
What comes first
Despite political accusations and slow negotiations, the message from families remains the same: truth and the dignity of victims must come first. “Only when there is a grave can families find peace,” the Humanitarian Law Center reminded.
Tatjana Lazarević
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
