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1,654 persons still missing from Kosovo and Metohija

June 25, 2015 Source: Tanjug

A total of 1,654 persons are still missing in Kosovo and Metohija today, including 535 Serbs and other non-Albanians, said Veljko Odalović, President of the Serbian Government’s Commission for Missing Persons, at the event commemorating 16th anniversary of the kidnapping and murder of over 50 civilians in the municipality of Istok in Metohija.

Velјko Odalović

"This is still a huge number, despite the fact that we resolved over 1,700 cases. I am not proud of this output, but we must keep in mind the conditions, circumstances and partners that we work with, meaning that we have to deal with people who are neither honourable nor responsible in their work," said Odalović at the panel "Sad Reminder of the Innocent Victims, Villagers of Istok, from June 1999".

Each indicated location in central Serbia has been examined, Odalović underscored, adding that the Government's Commission for Missing Persons will continue to address this issue in a responsible manner, "because it is a question of civilization and humanity".

President of the Association of Families of Victims of Kosovo-Metohija Nataša Šćepanović said that the crimes committed in the Municipality of Istok were similar to many other crimes that took place throughout Kosovo-Metohija at the time, in terms of savagery and insensitiveness exercised by the Albanian terrorist perpetrators.

"What many cannot grasp and comprehend is that the massive and individual abductions, rapes, harassments and forced disappearances of thousands of innocent Serbian civilians, occurred right at the time when the peacekeeping forces of KFOR and UNMIK were taking over the responsibility to protect all inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohija, regardless of their ethnic and religious background," said Šćepanović.

Šćepanović pointed out that KFOR and UNMIK not only failed to protect Kosovo and Metohija Serbs and non-Albanians, but according to the eyewitness statements and testimonies, were directly involved in crimes by not protecting the victims.

"Therefore it is our obligation to commemorate the16th anniversary of the killing of innocent civilians of Istok, to remind the national and international media that these people lost their lives only because they were Serbs," said Šćepanović.

Ethnically motivated incidents in Kosovo and Metohija, 2021 Negotiation process with Pristina Operational Factsheet
Time elapsed since assuming the obligation of establishing CSM
Year Month Week Day
10 130 567 3969