KOSOVO SERB AND ALBANIAN FAMILIES OF THE MISSING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PRISTINA 000413 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL, INL, AND EUR/SCE, NSC FOR BRAUN, USUN FOR DREW SCHUFLETOWSKI, USOSCE FOR STEVE STEGER E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2016 TAGS: PGOV KJUS KCRM EAID KDEM UNMIK YI SUBJECT: KOSOVO SERB AND ALBANIAN FAMILIES OF THE MISSING FIND COMMON GROUND REF: A. 06 PRISTINA 782 ¶B. 06 PRISTINA 480 Classified By: COM TINA KAIDANOW FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: For the first time in over a year, family members of missing Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians met jointly with representatives of the Government of Serbia, the PISG, and UNMIK at a May 16-17 conference in Macedonia, organized by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). The discussions were tense and emotional, but families on both sides found they share significant common ground in their questions and concerns about resolving the fate of their loved ones. While little concrete came of the conference, which USOP attended, the process will continue at the next open session of the Pristina/Belgrade working group, scheduled for May 31 in Pristina. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serb family members of persons missing from the 1999 conflict attended a May 16-17 conference in Ohrid, Macedonia, organized by the Sarajevo-based International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). This was the first time that family members from both sides met together with representatives of both government commissions since the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) halted public sessions in March 2006 of the Pristina/Belgrade working group on missing persons due to lack of progress (Ref A). (NOTE: According to Gherardo Pontrandolfi, head of ICRC's Pristina office, ICRC declined an invitation to participate in the conference over concerns that it would duplicate efforts already under way in the working group process, in both private sessions that have taken place over the past year and in the public session scheduled for May 31 in Pristina. END NOTE.) ¶3. (SBU) Haki Kasumi, Kosovo Albanian leader of the Coordination Council of Families of Missing Persons, set the tone of recrimination with his opening remarks entitled, "We seek an immediate solution to missing persons in Kosovo." Kasumi claimed that the Kosovo Liberation Army's (KLA) only goal during the 1998-99 conflict was to protect Kosovo Albanians, and insisted that Belgrade has failed to allow access to files containing records related to the fate of their loved ones. He claimed that 90 percent of the 2,082 people still missing were Kosovo Albanian, and speculated unhelpfully that many of them are probably being held hostage in secret prisons in Serbia. ¶4. (SBU) What followed was two days of bitter exchanges by family member representatives on both sides, alternately venting at the government officials present, making inflammatory accusations, and occasionally asking the specific, practical questions the conference was intended to foster. The presence of Veljko Odalovic, Serbian government head of administration of the Kosovo District during 1998-99 and now president of the Commission on Missing Persons of the Republic of Serbia, predictably angered Kosovo Albanian family members. ICMP director Bomberger's frequent requests that the discussion remain civil were only moderately effective. ¶5. (C) Despite on-going turf battles between the ICMP and UNMIK's Office of Missing Persons and Forensics (OMPF),OMPF chief Valerie Brasey participated in the conference and patiently answered family associations' questions about the logistics and science behind investigations and identifications. Brasey told us on May 22 that the conference went "as well as could have been expected," but added that on several occasions, it degenerated into an exchange of insults between family members and government officials. She said that Bomberger was "disappointed" in her attempts to convince the family members to call for an increased role for ICMP in forensic processes in Kosovo. (NOTE: Under ICMP's 2003 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with OMPF, ICMP collects blood samples from family members of the missing and conducts DNA analysis of bone samples to make PRISTINA 00000413 002 OF 002 identification matches (Ref B). ICRC regional forensic advisor Shuala Drawdy praised OMPF during a March visit to Kosovo, saying that OMPF has achieved a remarkable success rate compared to similar conflicts around the globe. However, she added that OMPF could achieve far more if it had additional scientific professionals on staff to assist with the tremendous caseload. OMPF has since asked us to fund three of their current specialists for a year during the transition period. END NOTE.) ¶6. (SBU) During separate pre-conference meetings in March, Kosovo Serb and Kosovo Albanian family associations generated very similar lists of priorities and concerns. During the conference, they were able to merge these lists into common goals. Their main areas of concern were: access to information about burials and excavations that took place prior to the creation of OMPF in 2002; information about the existence of secret prisons where missing loved ones may still be alive; the dearth of successful war crimes prosecutions; desire for reparations, legal rights and benefits for survivors; and dissatisfaction with the slowing pace of exhumation and identification of the missing. ¶7. (SBU) COMMENT. While not achieving tangible results that will actually lead to the resolution of individual cases, the conference was the first time missing persons family member associations from both sides have met outside the formal working group context. Despite the understandable tensions, the mutual recognition of shared concerns and objectives was a positive result that can be built on as public working group sessions resume in the near future. KAIDANOW