UNMIK/PR/755
Pristina – SRSG Michael Steiner met today with the Albanian family associations of the missing at UNMIK headquarters. After addressing the family associations to inform them of the progress made in efforts to find Kosovo’s missing, SRSG Michael Steiner turned the microphones over to the group to hear their concerns and to answer some of their questions.
“When I arrived in Kosovo the missing was a top priority for me,” explained SRSG Michael Steiner in his opening address. “The overall system was not working as well as it could have been, so I ordered a comprehensive restructuring that is now in place. The new head of the Office of Missing Persons arrives today, Mr. Jose Pablo Baraybar, who has more than six years of experience working on the issue of the missing in Bosnia with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).”
“There are now more than 40 people dedicated exclusively to resolving the problem of Kosovo’s missing. And with the opening of the new morgue facility in Orahovec in May, we now have a team of international pathologists and anthropologists working on this. One of our priorities is to have local, Albanian experts involved in this process and we have asked them to be a part of it.”
SRSG Michael Steiner also called attention to the recent increase in the number of identifications, citing this as proof that the reorganization of the system and the enhanced cooperation with the ICRC and the ICMP – which brought new technologies such as DNA testing – was working.
“We are already seeing the results. In the first few months of this year we have had more identifications than in all of last year. And yesterday the ICMP informed us of the first DNA matches of Kosovo blood and bone samples from their laboratory in Tuzla. As exhumations are increased and more bone samples are sent for testing, these identifications will increase.”
After thanking SRSG Michael Steiner for holding the meeting, representatives of the family associations voiced their concerns about such issues as hidden prisons and the exhumations being done at the Batajnica site around Belgrade.
SRSG Michael Steiner said that the utmost was being done to conclude all exhumations in Belgrade this year, assuring family members that objectivity in the identification process was ensured through the participation of the ICRC and the ICMP in the process.
SRSG Michael Steiner then urged the family associations to work not only with UNMIK and the international community in solving the problem of the missing, but also with their counterpart Serbian organizations.
“We have multiplied our exam facilities. We have asked your experts to join us. The more intensely we work here, the more bone samples we can send to ICMP laboratories in the region. We must be concrete. But I need your cooperation also.”
“One more thing that may be very difficult for you to accept but from my experience in Bosnia I see as essential, is to work together with the Serbian family organizations of the missing. You have more than 3,000 missing. But you know there are also missing Serbs. The feeling of not knowing what happened to a loved one knows no ethnicity. The best way to advance your cause is that your representatives have talks with these families who share the same feelings. In these feelings you can find an ally which will help put pressure on their government.”
SRSG Michael Steiner said that the meeting was just the first in an ongoing communication process. “We will hold monthly meetings between senior persons in the Office of Missing Persons and your representatives.
As the missing meeting ran over its scheduled time and SRSG Steiner was late for a subsequent meeting on organized crime, he was unable to address the press following the meeting.
