[KAN-Info] Both Kosovo and Serbia must confront the issue of the missing

[Naida Dukaj]

KOSOVA ACTION NETWORK
NEWSLETTER #4 ON MISSING
November 25, 2004

Phantom Pain- by Marek Antoni Nowicki
UNMIK Ombudsperson
25 November 2004



                                   Both Kosovo and Serbia must confront the
issue of the missing.

PRISTINA, Kosovo--In their latest act of protest, families of missing
Kosovar Albanians recently blocked the streets in the center of Pristina for
three long days. An earlier protest made headlines when international police
forces removed demonstrators who blocked the same streets.

    The media coverage of the earlier protest left out the real issue: the
pain and the many unanswered questions these families struggle with on a
daily basis. Instead, attention was focused on international and local
police detaining old women grasping pictures of loved ones, and by the
frustration of motorists honking their horns at protesters while navigating
the blocked streets around Pristina.

    Have the people who have been holding vigils outside the gates of the
UN's Kosovo Mission headquarters, the heart of the province¹s international
administration, after all these years simply become a regular piece of the
landscape?

    It is a well-known medical phenomenon that when a human loses a limb he
or she can still physically ³feel² the missing flesh and blood. In many
cases, amputees even ³feel² severe pain in the body part that no longer
exists. Such a sensation is known as phantom pain.

    That is what the families of the missing are experiencing, be they
ethnic Albanian, Serb, or something else.

    One day their loved ones simply didn¹t return home. These families live
in a perpetual state of limbo, wondering, waiting, agonizing over the
unknown fate of their mother, father, sister, brother, husband, wife,
daughter, or son--not knowing whether they¹re alive or dead.

    This has been going on for five years now.

    In most cases, these families look desperately for any sign, hint, or
evidence, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, to bolster their
hope that their loved one remains alive. Many times these relatives react to
messages or even DNA findings in an emotional way that strikes outsiders as
unreasonable, just to reject a truth they do not want to accept.

    This attitude is sometimes abused by criminal elements that fraudulently
promise information regarding the whereabouts of missing relatives.
Criminals claim that they saw the relative in a secret prison or give other
assurances that somehow the loved one is still alive. We too often read in
the papers that families sometimes pay large sums of their meager savings,
pensions, or incomes for information that is obviously false. Such abuses,
as difficult as they are to comprehend, also point to how desperate these
families are to find peace of mind.

    While a considerable number of non-Albanians, especially Serbs, have
also gone missing in Kosovo, the clear majority of the missing are ethnic
Albanians, mainly victims of operations by Serbian paramilitaries,
especially during the widespread anti-insurgency campaigns of 1998 and 1999.
But the phantom pain weighs heavily on the collective consciousness of both
the Albanian and the Serbian communities.

    The last five years have brought some progress in the process of
discovering the details that make up the dramatic truth. But the
international administration still has a formidable task ahead, especially
since it carries some responsibility for failing to tackle the issue
earlier. This has allowed the phantom pain to grow.

    But speaking of responsibility, what of the efforts made by Serbia?
Serbia is now under a different regime and recently ratified the European
Convention on Human Rights and other important human rights documents. The
authorities occasionally transfer identified remains from inside Serbia to
the border of Kosovo. But Serbian society and its leadership have not
convincingly shown that every effort is being made to help the many Kosovar
Albanian families learn the fate of their missing loved ones.

    It is in the interest of Serbia and its future to look into the question
of what happened to the missing, no matter how horrifying the truth. The
citizens of Serbia must be prepared to accept and navigate these emotionally
charged issues. Most importantly, these efforts must be undertaken in a
proactive manner, not just in reaction to events.

    Public debate in Serbia has been muted. Few criminal cases have been
tried in Serbian courts, and there has been no visible public support for
these efforts. Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia in The Hague is almost non-existent. There has been no
decisive break with the crimes committed in the name of the Serbian people
in the recent past, or indeed with the climate that made them possible.

    The overall reaction in Serbia to the awful truth has been to deny,
defend, and reject. But this will not be possible forever.

    Recent conflicting reports about the number of alleged mass graves in
Serbia confirm this point. These mass graves offer another opportunity to
address and reflect upon these issues openly. Mass graves are proof that
people suffered unimaginable atrocities; they are a reminder of what happens
when impunity reigns.

    And, recent statements from public figures in Serbia, even while
contradictory at times, suggest that they, too, feel the phantom pains of
the missing Kosovar Albanians.

    One of them said recently: ³I couldn¹t sleep well knowing that someone
had dug out the graves in Kosovo and transferred them here, under our own
windows.²

    The fact that the bodies were removed from Kosovo to Serbia proper
suggests that there was a reasonable expectation of impunity, or an
expectation that these crimes would never be discovered. Why else transport
thousands of lifeless bodies to Serbia? Relocating the bodies meant that
there were people who had killed, people who had given orders, people who
were transporting the dead, and people hiding those who had bloody hands.

    All of these people need to stand before the courts and answer for their
actions.

    This affects the crimes I mentioned here as well as similar
acts--regardless of the nationality, position, or current orientation of
those who committed them. How can a society, any society, not feel like an
accomplice in this terrible legacy?

    A far-reaching, cathartic debate cannot be imposed from the outside but
must begin from within a society. Until now the problem has been that
society has not had the strength to confront its past. But there is no
choice; the strength must found--or else the phantom pain will never go
away.

    Having said that, it is clear that the families of the
missing--Albanians, Serbs, and others--will never forget their loss. Even
so, as time moves forward, forgiveness is an unavoidable fate for a society,
no matter how difficult.


Marek Antoni Nowicki is the Ombudsperson of Kosovo. His column ³Off the
Record,² from which this piece is adapted, is published every first and
third Friday in the Pristina newspaper Koha Ditore. Kata Mester also
contributed to this column.



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