The identities of two people missing during the Kosovo war have been confirmed

The Government Commission on Missing Persons has announced that the identities of two more people who went missing during the last war in Kosovo have been confirmed through DNA analysis.

According to the commission, these cases are not connected to the exhumations carried out in Kalludër and Jabukë in the municipality of Zubin Potok, recent developments or other locations investigated this year.

The identification concerns human remains that were exhumed earlier and are currently being kept at the morgue of the Institute of Forensic Medicine.

The commission announced that the DNA reports had been forwarded to the Institute of Forensic Medicine. Following the necessary verifications, the institute officially confirmed the identities of the two people.

Their families are expected to be informed this week about the results and further procedures.

The commission’s chair, Agron Limani, told KTV a day earlier that the identified people came from the municipalities of Klina and Istog.

Initially, several media outlets reported that the two victims were among the human remains discovered in Zubin Potok. However, the authorities later clarified this information.

Work continues to identify the remains found in three mass graves in the villages of Kalludër e Vogël and Jabukë. So far, the victims Idriz Rrecaj, Adem Beqiri and Salih Mëziu have been confirmed, while 20 other people remain to be identified.

Samples of the human remains have been sent to The Hague, Netherlands, to be analyzed by the International Commission on Missing Persons.

The discovery of the graves in Kalludër e Vogël and Jabukë followed a months-long investigation by Kosovo institutions, which are continuing their searches in Serbian territory as well.

Currently, Kosovo teams have returned to the village of Kozhle, in the Novi Pazar area, where human remains of people who went missing during the Kosovo war are suspected to be located.

Three sites have been identified in this area for field assessment, also based on satellite imagery.

Kosovo institutions have requested access from Serbia to other locations, as well as archival data that could help shed light on the fate of missing persons.

Kushtrim Gara of the Government Commission on Missing Persons said that five mass graves have so far been confirmed in Serbia: Batajnica, Petrovo Sello, Peruçaci, Rudnica and Kizhevak. More than 950 victims of the Kosovo war have been found at these locations.

Gara stressed that if these five sites are part of the list of 16 mass graves published in 2001, there could be at least 11 other locations in Serbian territory.

Searches are also continuing in Kosovo, where excavations have been carried out or planned in Skenderaj, North Mitrovica and the regions of Prizren, Gjakova and Peja.

The Institute for Crimes Committed During the War in Kosovo says that 1,577 people continue to be listed as missing from the 1998-1999 war, while the number of documented war victims stands at 12,230. / REL