Kosovo institutions excavated ten locations in Kosovo and one in Serbia during 2020, where body remains of eleven war victims were found.
The head of Kosovo’s Commission on Missing Persons, Rame Manaj said during a press conference on Saturday that their work slowed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last body remains believed to be of Kosovo war victims were found in November in five mass graves in Serbia, near the southwestern town of Kizevak.
“Kizevak is the 5th location where remains were found. In Kosovo this year we had excavations in 9 places which resulted in body remains of 11 people,” Manaj told media.
He added that they expected the European Union to put more pressure on Serbia to reveal burial locations of Albanian war victims, while acknowledging the big US support in the process.
Arsim Gerxhaliu, the director of Kosovo’s Institute of Forensic Medicine said that three locations were checked in Serbia during this year. He announced that excavations will take place in Shtavalin, where another mine is located.
“We also checked in Shtavalin, in a mine where a mass grave is suspected. We will work there after Kizevak,” he said.
Gerxhaliu told Exit News that all orders issued by War Crimes Prosecution for 2020 were executed by the Institute of Forensics Medicine.
Body remains of five victims have been found in Kizevak to date, which need to be identified. Excavations there had to stop until spring due to weather conditions.
The exact location of mass graves was made possible through areal images from 1999.
Over 1,600 people are still listed as missing since the end of the war in Kosovo in 1999.
