Petkovic: Pristina Refuses to Permit Search for Missing Serbs for Years

Petar Petkovic/BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/

The director of the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, said on May 8 that Pristina had been obstructing the search for persons who were reported missing during armed conflicts in Kosovo, avoiding to allow that nine locations that might be hiding the bodies of missing Serbs be examined.

During a meeting with the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regional delegation, Jelena Stijacic, and the coordinator for protection and chairperson of the Working Group for Missing  Persons, Aurelie Gautier, the Serbian government official said that Belgrade had allowed for the examination of 23 locations that Pristina had marked as relevant.

Petkovic also said that the Declaration on Missing Persons, which Belgrade and Pristina adopted in Brussels, on May 2, was a civilizational issue of exceptional importance, adding that the Serbian party had been insisting on the document for more than two years, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija quoted Petkovic as saying.

Petkovic also suggested that it was necessary that the ICRC should step up its activities, in order to make the Declaration operative as soon as possible, and to make the first steps in its implementation. He said that the Committee should “exert necessary influence on Pristina to fulfil the obligations it has accepted.”