The Chairman of the Kosovo Government Commission on Missing Persons, Andin Hoti, expects that this year they will return for excavations in Batajnica. Even though the Serbian side has not given a date when the works can start, he considers that there is a large number of mortal remains in that location. Kosovo has sent about 20 requests to Serbia, as Hoti adds, for excavations in the territory of this country.

According to him, they are currently evaluating the terrain near Novi Pazar. In an interview for KosovaPress, Hoti repeats the request for full access to the archives of the 37th brigade of the Yugoslav army, as he adds that he has also sent a letter to the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic.

Within this year, excavations have been made in 14 locations in the territory of Kosovo.

“Our teams are in Matiqan, in the location we call Matiqan or in the Matiqan cemetery in the Municipality of Prishtina. This is the 14th location that we are excavating this year, but when we talk about excavations we don’t always talk about results. We have always said this because it is not often that the excavations we do in the territory of Kosovo produce results for us, this is due to the lack of information that we have in the context of information about the fate of missing persons. Our job is to research, handle any kind of information or dig where we see fit. You know that in this very cemetery in Matiqan, last year we managed to identify two people who were on the list of missing persons. But, based on our information, we have been looking for another person besides these two that we have identified; this other person is still missing. There is a person who was taken from Pristina Hospital during the war and his traces disappeared”, said Hoti.

Hoti hopes that with pressure they will be able to return this year for excavations in Batajnica.

“Somewhere around 20 requests or 20 different cases have been made by Kosovo to Serbia in general for the return or treatment of new locations in the territory of Serbia. Until today we have managed to get a location, so currently, some of the teams are evaluating the terrain near Novi Pazar. We are constantly insisting that apart from this location, because Serbia has put this location on the table, but without giving concrete and accurate information about what we can find or exactly in which coordinates this mass cemetery can be. In addition, we are persistently asking to return within the year to Batajnica. There is also a group or quite a large number that we think may have remained at that time, in 2000 when the exhumations were made then. The Serbian side has not rejected this location for return, but we have not yet received a date, we have not received a document, nothing has been set for return to this location”, he said.

Despite the insistence and numerous requests sent to the Serbian side, Hoti emphasizes that Serbia is not providing information about the missing persons.

“We still have other locations in the territory of Prishtina and after that, based on the agenda we have, we will go to Drenas. I cannot say exactly the number of excavations we will do this year, because it depends due to various circumstances, but I believe that it will exceed the number of 20, locations that we treat and excavate within this year in the territory of Kosovo. As for the territory of Serbia, I believe you have seen it discussed several times in the media, we have had two meetings with the Serbian side this year, on January 31 and July 2 of this year, always looking for, not all because we do not have all the information but in search of those we know. What we know are the archives that we are continuously asking for, what we know, there are the letters I sent to Mr. Vucic last year on June 1, what we know is the return to the locations that potentially we have people left unexhumed from places like Batajnica, Petrovosello, Peruqas, then also in Novi Pazari”, he said.

The Chairman of the Kosovo Government Commission on Missing Persons, Andin Hoti, says that Kosovo has needed ten years for excavations in two locations in Serbia.

“The last two times that the excavations took place, both of our teams took five years. We have been working for ten years in two locations, and after five years, one happened through satellite images of the United States of America and the other in a similar form in order to reach the specific location. So we don’t have time to waste either five years or ten years. At the same time, we are going to do the assessment on the ground because we have an obligation, but at the same time we are putting some kind of pressure on both the international community and the Serbian side, so that we don’t go somewhere and don’t have any concrete information and to waste time for years but for Serbia to give us the archives they have”, he said.

August 30 marks the International Day of the Disappeared, where over 1,600 people are still considered missing from the last war in Kosovo.