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Kurti insists: In the statement about the missing, the term "violently disappeared" is mentioned

Politiko 2023-04-06 13:31:19

Kurti insists: In the statement about the missing, the term "violently

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has said that in the text of the statement on missing persons, which Kosovo and Serbia agreed on April 4, the term "disappeared by violence" is mentioned.

"The correct wording in English is 'forcibly disappeared', which means those who have disappeared by force, and that is the term that was agreed upon and is in the content of the agreement. So even when it is declared, it will be said 'persons not found', 'disappeared', 'missing', it is always about the disappeared by violence", he said.

The chief European diplomat, Josep Borrell, confirmed on Wednesday that the chief negotiators of Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement on April 4 on the statement on missing persons, but did not clarify whether the term "violently disappeared" is mentioned there.

The Director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, after the meeting in Brussels with the Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik Bislimi, stated that this term has not been accepted by the Serbian side.

 "I would only add that we have been particularly careful about all the terms and that we have not accepted the term mentioned in the international convention on enforced disappearance, because we have taken care not to endanger the interests of Serbia", he said.

On February 27, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, accepted the Agreement for the normalization of relations based on the European proposal, while on March 18 in Ohrid, they agreed on the Annex for its implementation.

It also foresees the implementation of all the agreements reached so far in the dialogue for the normalization of relations, including the agreement on missing persons.

In April 2022, the European Union said that the parties are "very close" to an agreement on clarifying the fate of the disappeared and that all that remains to be done is "harmonizing the two words".

The term "by force" for the disappearance of persons during the war in Kosovo, in 1998/99, which the Kosovo side insisted on and was rejected by Serbia, has so far blocked the reaching of an agreement between the parties.

During the war in Kosovo, around 13,000 people were killed, over 800,000 were displaced, while around 6,000 disappeared. More than 1,600 people still remain missing to this day.

Hundreds of bodies of murdered Kosovo Albanians have been found in mass cemeteries in Serbia./Rel

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