Families of Kosovo’s Missing Boycott Government Memorial

The digital display in central Pristina, an initiative launched by Kosovo’s government commission on missing persons, is an inadequate substitute for the genuine memorial that was originally promised, relatives who have joined the boycott told BIRN.

The electronic billboard was installed by the city authorities in front of the Kosovo government and parliament buildings to mark the International Day of the Disappeared on August 30 last year, but many families have so far refused to submit their missing relatives’ photographs for display.

“We didn’t send the photos over to the [missing persons] commission because the electronic billboard is discriminatory and [looks like] some kind of advertisement. We will not offend our missing relatives and put their photos on it,” said Nesrete Kumnova, head of the Missing Persons Association in the town of Gjakova/Djakovica, whose son has not been seen since the late 1990s conflict.

Instead, Kumnova and several other members of her association attached photographs of their missing relatives to the parliament fence under the erected billboard last Saturday.

But Prenk Gjetaj, the head of the government missing persons commission, said that many families had not joined the boycott.

“So far we have some 200 photos. Relatives of the missing or associations for missing persons did not send all the photos we asked for,” Gjetaj said.

He insisted that the billboard would start functioning soon as planned. Currently it only displays the words: “August 30 - International Day of the Disappeared.”

“We want to start screening the photos that we have very soon and for those missing [people] we don’t have photos of, we will display a red rose,” Gjetaj said.

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