AI: Fate of missing unknown 10 years on

Ten years after the end of the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia, AI has appealed to Serbia, Kosovo and EULEX to cooperate in missing persons investigations. About 1,900 families in Kosovo and Serbia still have no details about the fate or whereabouts of their missing relatives. AI: Fate of missing unknown 10 years on “Over the past 10 years there has been a consistent failure by the authorities in Serbia and Kosovo to address the legacy of war crimes which took place in Kosovo in 1999. Their failure to initiate prompt, thorough and impartial investigations in either Serbia or Kosovo has created a culture of impunity, and has failed to deliver justice to the relatives of ethnic Albanians who went missing at the hands of Serb forces and relatives of Serbs abducted by the Kosovo Liberation Army,” says Sian Jones, Amnesty International's Balkans expert, . In a report published to mark the tenth anniversary of the end of the war in Kosovo, Amnesty International writes that more than 3,000 ethnic Albanians were the victims of enforced disappearance by Serbian police, paramilitary and military forces during the war. It adds that an estimated 800 Serbs, Roma and members of other minority groups were also abducted, reportedly by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, mostly before the eyes of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in the province, after the international armed conflict ended in June 1999. The report also says that the failure to address the problem is a consequence of several circumstances, such as inefficiency of the competent authorities, intimidation of witnesses and the absence of a witness protection program. “The influence of individuals who were powerful during the war, including some former KLA leaders and Serbian police officials, still extends throughout the Serbian and Kosovo Albanian governments and society, and in the case of Kosovo, even into UNMIK,” notes Jones. In its 82-page report, Amnesty International states that UNMIK investigators failed to promptly conduct thorough or impartial investigations into allegations, subsequently published by former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, that up to 300 Serbs were abducted by members of the KLA in 1999, and taken across the border to the so-called yellow house near the village of Burrel in Albania, where their vital organs were removed.

AI: Fate of missing unknown 10 years on

“Over the past 10 years there has been a consistent failure by the authorities in Serbia and Kosovo to address the legacy of war crimes which took place in Kosovo in 1999. Their failure to initiate prompt, thorough and impartial investigations in either Serbia or Kosovo has created a culture of impunity, and has failed to deliver justice to the relatives of ethnic Albanians who went missing at the hands of Serb forces and relatives of Serbs abducted by the Kosovo Liberation Army,” says Sian Jones, Amnesty International's Balkans expert, .

In a report published to mark the tenth anniversary of the end of the war in Kosovo, Amnesty International writes that more than 3,000 ethnic Albanians were the victims of enforced disappearance by Serbian police, paramilitary and military forces during the war. It adds that an estimated 800 Serbs, Roma and members of other minority groups were also abducted, reportedly by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, mostly before the eyes of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in the province, after the international armed conflict ended in June 1999.

The report also says that the failure to address the problem is a consequence of several circumstances, such as inefficiency of the competent authorities, intimidation of witnesses and the absence of a witness protection program.

“The influence of individuals who were powerful during the war, including some former KLA leaders and Serbian police officials, still extends throughout the Serbian and Kosovo Albanian governments and society, and in the case of Kosovo, even into UNMIK,” notes Jones.

In its 82-page report, Amnesty International states that UNMIK investigators failed to promptly conduct thorough or impartial investigations into allegations, subsequently published by former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, that up to 300 Serbs were abducted by members of the KLA in 1999, and taken across the border to the so-called yellow house near the village of Burrel in Albania, where their vital organs were removed.