As Kosovo continues its decades-long search for truth and justice, the Government Commission on Missing Persons stands at the front of one of the country’s most painful and unresolved legacies—locating around 1,600 missing people from the 1998–99 war.
In March 2025, suspected war-time human remains were uncovered during a routine grave excavation in the remote village of Obrançë, in the Podujevë region. The discovery came after a local resident alerted authorities, explaining that workers noticed unusual items including a blanket and visible human bones while a grave was being prepared for a deceased relative.
“We buried our dead in white shrouds, never with blankets,” the witness told police investigators. “This led us to suspect these may be remains from the war.”
Kosovo’s Directorate for the Investigation of War Crimes immediately secured the site.
Florim Elshani from the Kosovo Police told Prishtina Insight that “there have been human remains found in this area (the cemetery) before—in the early post-war days, family members discovered new gravesites.”
Kosovo Government Commission on Missing Persons, in coordination with the Kosovo Special Prosecution, the Police, and the Institute for Forensic Medicine, IML, is intensifying efforts to uncover mass grave sites and identify remains of missing persons from the 1998-99 war, despite being consistently obstructed by political roadblocks, aging evidence, and fading memories.
More than two decades since the war ended, 1,595 people of all ethnicities remain missing, based on data from the Government Commission on Missing Persons.
War crimes in Kosovo were first investigated by the UN interim administration in Kosovo, UNMIK, then the role was taken over by the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX. Since 2018, these investigations have been transferred to the Kosovo authorities.
As of 2025, approximately 2,466 individuals who went missing during the 1998–1999 Kosovo War have been identified and accounted for through DNA-based identification facilitated by the International Commission on Missing Persons, ICMP.
In 2024 alone, authorities ordered 15 forensic examinations and are still processing additional information received from multiple sources.
In December 2024, Kosovo and Serbia agreed to fully implement the Joint Declaration on Missing Persons, initially signed in May 2023 under EU mediation. It calls for unrestricted access to information, including classified data, and joint work through an EU-chaired commission.
Access blocked across the border
Exhumations over suspected mass grave in Shtavlaj, Serbia, in November 2023. Photo: Government Commission on Missing Persons.
Since the 1998-99 Kosovo war, hundreds of victims have been discovered in mass graves in Serbia, but the process of verifying new sites has been stalled because of a lack of collaboration between the two countries.
Andin Hoti, head of the Kosovo Government Commission on Missing Persons, told us about several unresolved locations in Serbia—most notably in Kozkolje and Batajnica.
“Serbia has acknowledged their existence, but the work has yet to begin. I’m not saying we’re certain, but based on the information we’ve gathered, we are convinced that, in Batajnica in particular, there are still some human remains that were either not recovered or not exhumed back in the early 2000s when that location was initially investigated,” Hoti said.
Discovered in 2001 near Belgrade, Serbia, the Batajnica mass graves contained the remains of 744 Kosovo Albanians who were victims of the Kosovo War in 1999 and were transported from Kosovo to Serbia in trucks.
The bodies were buried at the police training centre in Batajnica as part of a cover-up orchestrated by Serbian authorities. The exhumation process, conducted between 2001 and 2002, uncovered the remains of civilians, including men, women, children, and the elderly, who were victims of war crimes committed by the Serbian forces.
Natasa Kandic from the Humanitarian Law Centre in Serbia told KALLXO.com that authorities were informed about a possible grave site near Kozlje, but no further action was taken.
Victims’ associations remain sceptical. Silvana Marinkovic from the Association of Families of the Kidnapped and Missing in Gracanica said that progress on the issue has been hindered by a lack of political motivation to address it.
“Politicians are abusing our pain. If they truly wanted answers, we would’ve had them by now,” she argued.
In Kosovo, authorities are re-examining past sites based on new or re-evaluated information. Eleven bodies were identified recently in the village of Bishtazhin near Gjakova.
“We plan to return there,” said Hoti. “The area has been examined before, but new data suggests we missed something.”
Prosecutor Morina reiterated the institutional commitment.
“The fate of the missing is the fate of all of Kosovo. Over the past two years, we’ve built a more functional system to better respond to this national burden.”
Recent identifications and investigations
Over the course of two years, Kosovo’s institutions have managed to locate the remains of fewer than 30 missing persons. The results are even more limited in Serbia, where there have been no examinations done at suspected gravesites at all during 2024.
Among the latest identifications were the 11 victims of the Kralan Massacre, confirmed in March 2024.
A Kallxo Përnime TV documentary, which aired the same month, documented how these discoveries are made—tracking the process from the initial tip-off to the forensic investigation.
Prosecutor Ilir Morina, who leads missing persons cases at the Specialist Prosecution, explained that these investigations are slow and resource-intensive.
“Fifteen procedures have been started this year alone. Each can take more than a year—sometimes up to five— because of their complexity,” Morina said.
While some officials believe access to information has improved, others warn that time is working against justice.
Ditor Haliti, deputy director of the IML, noted that “after 25 years, memory fades, witnesses age or pass away, and evidence deteriorates. Our work relies heavily on accurate and timely data.”
Unlike Haliti, Prosecutor Ilir Morina believes that the passage of time has led to an increase in the availability of information.
“There has been some progress in obtaining more substantial information. The identification of cases and the flow of new information have started to increase recently, which is why the police have been very active in this area,” he stated.
The Directorate for the Investigation of War Crimes within the Kosovo police currently consists of 40 officers, 11 of whom are dedicated to dealing with missing persons.
Kosovo’s War Crimes Unit has been involved in 36 exhumation efforts in 2023 and 2024, assisting both the prosecution and IML.
According to Haliti, evidence indicates that there are many bodies still buried in Serbia.
“We’ve identified partial remains in Kosovo’s primary gravesites. The rest [of these partial remains]—usually the torso—are likely buried in secondary graves across the border [in Serbia],” he said. “We’re ready to cooperate, but Belgrade needs to open archives and reveal burial sites.”
This article was prepared in English by Ardita Zeqiri.