"No political will to investigate Kosovo missing"

Senior DSS official Milos Aligrudic believes that any serious investigation into the fate of kidnapped Kosovo Serbs has been blocked. Aligrudic, who is also Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) vice-president, made the comments while speaking in Kosovska Mitrovica to family members of kidnapped or missing Serbs, adding that there was no political will to resolve this issue. "No political will to investigate Kosovo missing" He was particularly critical of U.S. policy, which, he said, was hampering resolution of this matter. Quoting information in former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte’s book, the senior Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) official said that "American policy helped block investigations into crimes committed by members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)." "That is probably at the root of the entire matter, but it is essential for us to see that this thing is resolved also through the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which deals with the issue of human rights," he said. Meanwhile, representatives of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Persons in Kosovo appealed yesterday to the international public and courts to establish the criminal responsibility of KFOR and UNMIK representatives, as, during their mandate, a large number of Serbs had been kidnapped and their fate was still unknown. Association Coordinator Milorad Trifunovic said that they should insist on extracting the truth from one former KFOR commander about what he knew of the fate of missing Serbs. "We should also ask UNMIK representatives, particularly Malcolm Stark, who has confirmed that there were 144 camps in Kosovo in which Serbs were held prisoner, to tell us what happened to those missing persons," said Trifunovic. He stressed that Stark should say who had been responsible for holding those people prisoner in those camps, the exact location of the camps, as well as the identity of the people responsible for the disappearance of camp prisoners. Trifunovic, whose brother Miroslav disappeared together with ten of his colleagues from the Belacevac mine in 1998, said that former UNMIK Chief and current French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner should reveal all he knows about kidnapped and missing persons, "because as a doctor and member of Medicins Sans Frontieres, Kouchner knows something about those events." He added that Del Ponte should tell the truth, "which she is turning into money by writing her books." Representatives of kidnapped and missing Serbs in Kosovo insist on opening up Hague Tribunal archives as well as those of KFOR, because, as they say, there are grounds to believe that those archives contain the truth about the missing Serbs from Kosovo. Milos Aligrudic (FoNet, archive)

"No political will to investigate Kosovo missing"

He was particularly critical of U.S. policy, which, he said, was hampering resolution of this matter.

Quoting information in former Hague Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte’s book, the senior Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) official said that "American policy helped block investigations into crimes committed by members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)."

"That is probably at the root of the entire matter, but it is essential for us to see that this thing is resolved also through the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which deals with the issue of human rights," he said.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Persons in Kosovo appealed yesterday to the international public and courts to establish the criminal responsibility of KFOR and UNMIK representatives, as, during their mandate, a large number of Serbs had been kidnapped and their fate was still unknown.

Association Coordinator Milorad Trifunović said that they should insist on extracting the truth from one former KFOR commander about what he knew of the fate of missing Serbs.

"We should also ask UNMIK representatives, particularly Malcolm Stark, who has confirmed that there were 144 camps in Kosovo in which Serbs were held prisoner, to tell us what happened to those missing persons," said Trifunović.

He stressed that Stark should say who had been responsible for holding those people prisoner in those camps, the exact location of the camps, as well as the identity of the people responsible for the disappearance of camp prisoners.

Trifunović, whose brother Miroslav disappeared together with ten of his colleagues from the Belačevac mine in 1998, said that former UNMIK Chief and current French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner should reveal all he knows about kidnapped and missing persons, "because as a doctor and member of Medicins Sans Frontieres, Kouchner knows something about those events."

He added that Del Ponte should tell the truth, "which she is turning into money by writing her books."

Representatives of kidnapped and missing Serbs in Kosovo insist on opening up Hague Tribunal archives as well as those of KFOR, because, as they say, there are grounds to believe that those archives contain the truth about the missing Serbs from Kosovo.