The Prime Minister of Kosova, Albin Kurti and the President of Serbia, Aleksander Vucic approved this Tuesday the Declaration on the Missing Persons from the last war in Kosova.

This was also the first item on the agenda in the meeting they are holding in Brussels, with the mediation of European Union officials.

EU spokesperson, Peter Spano had said earlier that they expected the parties to approve the Declaration on Missing Persons, as the first item on the agenda, which would be followed by the presentation and discussions on the draft statute for the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority in Kosova. The full text of the Declaration on the Missing Persons is as follows:

Emphasizing the importance of resolving the fate of the remaining Missing Persons to bring closure to the suffering of their loved ones and to foster lasting reconciliation and peace,

Bearing in mind that this Declaration follows the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) understanding of Missing Persons, which includes persons forcibly disappeared,

Recalling that all categories of Missing Persons, will be treated with equal priority,

Acknowledging the important work done through the Working Group on Missing Persons, chaired by the ICRC,

Encouraging cooperation with other relevant actors in the field of Missing Persons, in particular International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP),

Recognising the issue of Missing Persons as a humanitarian one,

Noting the urgent need for additional efforts to alleviate the human suffering of the families,

We jointly commit

• To ensure full implementation of respective commitments in the field of Missing Persons,
• to closely cooperate on identifying burial sites and follow-up on the excavations,
• to ensure full access to reliable and accurate information that helps to locate and identify the remaining Missing Persons within the timeframe 1 January 1998 – 31 December 2000. This includes all materials, notes, orders, documents, videos, audio recordings, and any other documents including those having classified status, under the possession of institutions of both parties, relevant to this context,
• to make available all domestic and international documentation of significance in determining the fate of the remaining Missing Persons,
• to use satellite data, LIDAR and other advanced technology in detecting mass graves,
• to enable and encourage active engagement of families of Missing Persons in the process of identifying their fates,
• to adequately ensure the rights and address the needs of the families of Missing Persons,
• to establish and work together through a Joint Commission chaired by the European Union and observed by the ICRC with the aim of supporting the effort to resolve the fate of the remaining Missing Persons,
• to monitor and support the work and the progress made by the Working Group on Missing Persons through the Joint Commission. In this context, the parties will review and update the Terms of Reference and General framework of the Working Group.

The operational details will be agreed in the next meeting of the EU-facilitated Dialogue on normalisation of relations.

/a.p./