Kosovo: Meeting of Working Group on missing persons
Belgrade/Pristina (ICRC) – On 10 March the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will convene a meeting of
the Working Group on persons unaccounted for in relation to the events in Kosovo between January 1998 and December 2000.
The meeting, to be held in Belgrade, will bring together representatives of the authorities in Belgrade and Pristina and
various observers. The Working Group met only once before, in early March 2004.
The ICRC decided to hold the meeting after the authorities on both sides expressed their readiness to elucidate the fate
of nearly 3,000 persons who are still missing. The Working Group meets under the auspices of the special representative
of the United Nations secretary-general in Kosovo, Søren Jessen-Petersen, and is chaired by the ICRC, acting as a
neutral intermediary.
The families of the missing have been waiting for news for many years now. They have a right to know what happened to
their loved ones, and the authorities concerned have a responsibility to do everything in their power to resolve this
pressing issue.
The ICRC has long experience in dealing with the problem of missing persons and the plight of their families around the
world, including in the former Yugoslavia. It collects data on the missing and continuously reminds the authorities
concerned of their obligation to elucidate the fate of these people and inform their families. The ICRC also provides
psychosocial and legal support for the families and assists in the identification of human remains.