Those who have waited more than a quarter of a century to find loved ones still missing from the war in Kosovo take little hope from a new joint commission between Serbia and its former southern province.
Serbeze Haxhiaj
The creation of a joint Kosovo-Serbia commission to resolve the fate of those still missing from the 1998-99 Kosovo war has come too late for Halil Ujkani. Now 91-years-old, he has already lost hope of ever finding the remains of his sons, brothers, and nephew.
Agreed in 2023, the Commission held its first meeting, chaired by the European Union, in January, and a second in April.
“I’ve heard about this joint commission,” said Ujkani, a former miner from the village of Vinarc, South Mitrovica. “But I no longer have any expectations.”
His two sons, 27-year-old Shaip and 19-year-old Nazmi, brothers Sadri, 42, and Zahit, 40, and a nephew called Nahit 20 went missing on April 16, 1999, less than a month into NATO air strikes to drive out Serbian forces accused of widespread atrocities and ethnic cleansing against the ethnic Albanian majority in the country’s then southern province.
They are among 1,585 people still missing as a result of the war. Of those, 470 are Serbs, including Petar Djuric, 60, who was last seen on June 29, 1999, in Istog/Istok. Djuric’s son, Marinko, said he was waiting to see “what this commission can deliver”.
