Odalovic: Pristina should open KLA archives in Skopje
BELGRADE - The Serbian government Commission for Missing Persons announced on Monday that it will ask the Pristina authorities to open the archives of the former ethnic Albanian para-military formation Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia.
We believe that the opening of the archives would contribute to solving the fates of several hundred persons gone missing during the armed conflicts in Kosovo-Metohija, Commission President Veljko Odalovic said at the debate in Belgrade staged to mark the International Human Rights Day observed on December 10.
According to the data of the Commission, the fate of 1,750 individuals remains unsolved to this day. Of this figure, 529 people are Serbs and other non-Albanians, while the rest are Kosovo Albanians, Odalovic said.
He noted that 14 years have passed since the armed conflicts in the southern Serbian province and the government Commission is not satisfied with the number of solves so far.
Odalovic said that most of the cases, including the gravest crimes, took place in Kosovo-Metohija during the mandate of the international community, but the search for the missing persons and Serb victims is either not mentioned at all or is pushed aside.
We are constantly facing problems in this aspect as international institutions and the Pristina government will not issue information about Serb victims, Odalovic noted.
Serbian Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic noted that citizens in Kosovo-Metohija, especially non-Albanians living in enclaves, are held hostage by ongoing political processes and are faced with violations of rights inconceivable for the rest of the modern Europe.
Representatives of Serbia's government bodies and Association of the Families of the Kidnapped and Murdered in Kosovo-Metohija agreed that human rights in Kosovo-Metohija are violated by the silence of the Pristina government and the international community concerning the fate of missing Serbs and other non-Albanians and by the failure of relevant institutions to punish the individuals responsible for the crimes.
http://www.tanjug.rs/news/109169/odalovic--pristina-should-open-kla-archives-in-skopje.htm