Under the direction of the Chairperson of the Governmental Commission on Missing Persons (GCMP), Prenkë Gjetaj, today held the regular meeting of the Governmental Commission for Missing Persons. At this meeting, alongside members of the Committee were also invited the representatives of local institutions and organizations, and international bodies involved in illuminating the fate of missing persons during the war of 1998 – ’99.
The Head of Governmental Commission presented the work and the engagements of the Commission for the first half of this year. At this meeting, the engagements and activities of ministerial Commission for Missing Persons in illuminating the fate of missing persons of the Governmental Commission for Missing Persons, for the period January – June 2012, was presented in a summarized form, with particular emphasis on the activities in the field, including 10 locations in different parts of Kosovo, where assessment excavations were conducted within the first half of the year.
‘These cases, most of which are new cases and are not included among the 36 sites presented in the beginning of the year, are processed in conformity with legal procedures by experts of the Department of Forensic Medicine (DFM) and the War Crimes Investigation Unit, and include the period from May, namely from the time of contracting company specializing from the Ministry of Justice for field work and DFM’s activities, until the end of June. In the days ahead we will continue to work in other cases already marked and presented months ago by the experts of the Department of Forensic Medicine’, said Gjetaj.
The list of names of 52 persons identified through DNA analysis was presented along with the report, including cases in which families are informed of the identification, cases that had been handed over to families and reburied, and the case for re-information and re-hand-over, which are cases that were previously closed.
The contents of the Rules of Procedure of the Government Commission for Missing Persons was presented during the meeting, respectively the next steps in order to implement this regulation, adopted at the 77th meeting of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, dated June 4, 2012, which defines the responsibilities, scope, and rules of procedure of the Government Commission for Missing Persons including the organization of administrative unit of the Commission.
The representative of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare Committee presented trends and the implementation of Law no. 04/L-054 on the Status and Rights of Martyrs, Disabled, Veterans, members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, civilian victims and their families, with special emphasis on creating conditions for re-application in compliance of recognizing rights guaranteed by this law.
Chairperson of Prenk Gjetaj, presented a brief summary on ‘Zhilivoda case’, respectively, the latest developments regarding the fire that occurred at this location. According to Gjetaj, it is important that works are ongoing and Zhilivoda project will soon be officially closed, which according to him, will be conducted according to practice applied so far in such cases, that the Government Commission for Missing Persons will decide on the date on which joint visits will take to place where all partners and parties involved in this process will be invited and this visit will take place on completion of works.
Meanwhile ‘Makërmali case’, dated March 31, 1999 ‘, relates to possible erroneous identifications, as a result of identification with the ‘classical’ method in the early post-war years, and not through scientific procedures and analysis of DNA. During the meeting, it was decided on the further procedures of professional handling of this case by DFM experts and organizations/other institutions.
At this meeting, the Organizing Council was formed to mark August 30th – International Day of Missing Persons.
At the end of the meeting, the proposition from the representatives of Associations of the Families of Missing Persons of Kosovo was discussed at the Government Commission for Missing Persons with respect to organizing a roundtable or a conference with the intention of fairly informing the national and international opinion on the challenged and the workflow of the developments related to the illumination of the fate of missing persons.
Last modified: July 31, 2022