The Chairman of the Government Commission for Missing Persons, Andin Hoti, says that the purpose of the letter sent to the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the EU, Kaja Kallas, is to apply positive pressure so that the issue of missing persons is given more priority by the European Union, Kosovapress reported. This letter is considered as information for the European foreign policy chief regarding the current problems related to the missing issue.
Access to Serbian territory to open 11 mass graves and to open archives from the Serbian military and police structures are two of the demands addressed to the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, through this letter.
“There are over 11 mass graves, and when I say this, I am not saying that I have a doubt, but that Serbia itself has admitted that they exist in Serbia, and we are requesting information and to open these mass graves. Access to Serbian territory through the European Union, in this case, becomes more urgent and easier… for Serbia to respond through the European Union for the crimes it has committed, it is no longer just about me, but through justice, and ultimately, justice should be served for the families of the missing persons. To add to the important points of this letter, which I already mentioned, there is also another point that has not been emphasized much in the past, which is that we are interested in the classified archives of the Serbian army, because it committed crimes in Kosovo by orders from the police, but it should be emphasized that in Kosovo, crimes were not only committed by the army; local Serbian citizens, ordered by the regime of Milosevic at that time, also committed crimes,” said Hoti.
The head of this government commission said that this letter is part of Kosovo’s ongoing efforts to apply positive pressure on the European Union so that the missing persons issue is given more priority. According to him, the main solution is to condition Serbia, not to apply pressure. Hoti listed two reasons why they chose Kosovo’s Independence Day to send this letter to the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas.
From the Government Commission for Missing Persons, they expect that within two or three weeks, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the EU, Kaja Kallas, will invite the next meeting of the Joint Commission of Kosovo and Serbia on missing persons. The head of this Commission, Andin Hoti, expressed pessimism about Serbia’s approach to continuing these meetings. On January 15 of this year, a meeting of the Joint Commission of Kosovo and Serbia on missing persons was scheduled, but it failed due to Serbia’s refusal to participate, as a sign of protest after Kosovo government’s initiative to close Serbian institutions. Even 26 years after the end of the war, the fate of more than 1,600 people is still unknown.
