Pristina, April 26, 2024 – On the occasion of the national day for missing persons, which is held every April 27th, the Ombudsperson’s Institution organized a round table with all parties involved in the case of missing persons.

The Ombudsperson, Naim Qelaj recalled the state’s obligations to guarantee victims and families of missing persons the right to know, the truth about the fate of forcibly disappeared family members and to guarantee justice for victims, so that crimes of war not to go unpunished.

“When more than 25 years have passed since the end of the war in Kosovo, the fate of more than 1,600 missing persons is still unknown. This is a disturbing fact and it is injustice for the victims, therefore the Ombudsperson calls on the local institutions and the entire international community, without compromise, to exert pressure to compel the responsible authorities to provide all the support and data they need to clarify the fate of the persons disappeared,” he said.

The Ombudsperson’s report “Transitional Justice and the implementation of its mechanisms” was also presented, which assessed from the perspective of human rights, the level of the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo in fulfilling the obligations arising from the Constitution, from the laws in force and from the international instruments regarding the crimes committed during the war in Kosovo and ensuring justice for the victims of these crimes.

The chairman of the government commission for missing persons, Andin Hoti spoke about the work and activities of the commission, which, among other things, he said that the commission is working on changing and supplementing the law on missing persons. He said that so far the commission has searched in 15 locations in Kosovo. He added that so far 950 people have been found in mass cemeteries in Serbia.

Atdhe Hetemi, executive director of the Institute for the crimes committed during the war in Kosovo, said that the institute is ready to cooperate with everyone in order to collect and archive all the data related to war crimes .

Ahmet Grajçevci, chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Family Associations of the Missing Persons of Kosovo, said that there are 23 non-governmental member organizations and they are active in their work. He recalled their work since the war, without state support, working on their own to collect evidence and artifacts.

Bajram Cerkini, Resource Center for Missing Persons, said that this topic always affects family members who have still missing persons. He said that more work should be done in order to clarify the fate of the missing persons.

Read here the Ombudsperson’s statement on the occasion of marking the national day for missing persons https://shorturl.at/FS069