Kosovo Albanian, Serbian search together for missing relatives

Kosovo Albanian Bajram Cerkini and Kosovo Serb Milorad Trifunovic attended on Friday in Pristina a meeting on missing people in Kosovo on the International Day of the Disappeared. Both Cerkini's son Reshat, than 28 years old, and Milorad's brother Miroslav, 33, disappeared in 1998, and are among 1526 missing people in Kosovo 14 years after the war. Cerkini reminded that family efforts have managed to find a lot of evidences on the fate of their loved ones, but there is a lack of willingness from institutions to act. "We all know who abducted them (his son and 7 other Albanians) and who executed them," Cerkini said in the meeting. He called on Pristina and Belgrade to put missing persons issue as the priority in the EU-facilitated dialogue in the Brussels which is taking place for almost two years. Trifunovic made the same appeal to local and international institutions. "We call on all responsible institutions to do their outmost in revealing the fate of missing people, the fate of our loved ones," said Trifunovic. The story of Cerkin and Trifunovic has a different dimension. Three years ago they met in Norway as they represented the family associations of missing persons in an international meeting organised by the International Commission on Missing Persons. They travelled from Pristina together, but started to speak to each other only after the conference commenced. It was the moment they approached each other and since they work together in searching for their family members. Cerkini said that the joint work with Trifunovic enabled him to visit some alleged sites in the Serb-dominated north of Kosovo. "These are suspected mass grave sites in which my son might be buried." Beside that he said that now he has a lot of information on the crimes committed in Kosovo, and that the issue has no ethnic dimension. Even in Norway I appealed not to see us through ethnic lines, but instead only as family members of the missing, as people with the same pain, concern, and demand: to understand what has happened with our family members, said Cerkini. Trifunovic admits the joint work with Cerkini was useful. He told media that alone was not possible to do anything, and together, they are organising meetings with institutions in charge, local and international. On the international day of the missing a billboard with the names and photos of all 1526 missing people in Kosovo was opened in Pristina. Mezire Batusha from the small village of Krusha in eastern Kosovo attended the ceremony. She told journalists that she still has her husband and two sons missing. "Since there is no evidence on them, sometimes I think that perhaps they might be alive. But at least I wish I understand what happened to them and where they are buried, so I could place a flower there in their death anniversary at least," said Batusha.