Pristina, 13 October 2014
At the Merdarë/Merdare Border Crossing Point, were repatriated 12 missing persons identified from the remains excavated from the mass grave in Rudnica/Raska (Serbia).
Repatriation to the Republic of Kosovo, through EULEX, from Serbia, was made in the presence of family members and with honours from the Kosovo Security Forces.
Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Edita Tahiri, after pain respects on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo expressed condolences to all the families, and stressed that Kosovo institutions have found ways to elucidate this tragic fact and to bring the identified home.
“The mass grave in Rudnica, Raska is one of the most tragic cases, one of the cases where genocide policies and Serbian genocide towards the Albanians and the people of Kosovo during the war, had the double cost. First, because the genocide led to the mass murder of Albanians. But, Rudnica case is twofold, because through this mass grave, Serbia attempted to delete all traces, by even constructing a building with provocative name to delete the history, “said Deputy Prime Minister.
Chairperson of the Government Commission on Missing Persons, Prenkë Gjetaj, emphasized that the return of all those remains is being finalized, which were identified through excavations in Raska. Also, I would like to inform family members that the ‘ case of Raska’, is not over and we are expecting other point assessments identified as suspected locations in Raska region.
The families of missing persons thanked institutions for their work in identifying and bringing their families in Kosovo.
“I would like to thank our institutions for their work, enabling us to wait for our family memebrs, to follow them in the cemetery, because the graves remained open until today. You can express condolences to brothers and sisters. We have suffered a lot. It is well known who the guilty and criminal is and after 15 years we still can’t find our loved ones’, said Hajriz Zabeli, family member from Rrezalla, Skenderaj municipality.
Family member Dan Morina from Çikatova e Vjetër, Drenas municipality asked the responsible one for these murders to be found.
‘I would like to make an appeal to international and local body to make pressure on Serbia to find those responsible for the murder of these innocents that were killed while protecting their children’ he said.
So far, from the mortal remains exhumed from Rudnica in Raska, identified mortal remains of 52 persons are repatriated, victims of the last war in Kosovo.
Together with the mortal remains of 12 persons, a considerable number of bone parts were received within the re-joint process and some mortal remains, samples of which are in the process of identification and the results are expected by International Commission of Missing Persons in the following days.
In this day, institutions of Republic of Kosovo, through EULEX, delivered to Serbian authorities and family members of missing persons, mortal remains of three identified persons of Serbian ethnicity.
After last identification, there are 1659 persons evidenced as missing during the war.
Last modified: July 31, 2022