It’s Never Too Late to Find the Kosovo War’s Missing Persons

My assignment to the US Mission in Kosovo (now embassy) in 2005 is unforgettable. Although I had covered the region at the US Department of State in Washington, DC since 2002, living and working in Kosovo was a meaningful experience, both professionally and personally.

Not only did I enjoy the local culture, including the infamous macchiatos, but I also developed many meaningful friendships. Although I no longer work for my government, I continue to follow Kosovo politics, and I occasionally write about transitional justice in the Balkans as part of my current job as a college professor.

While I have many fond memories of Kosovo, there were some experiences that were traumatic. As part of my portfolio at the Mission, I was responsible for working with the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, the local Provisional Institutions of Self-Government, PISG, and civil society on missing persons. At that time, the United States was helping to finance the exhumations of grave sites in Kosovo, and in order to monitor the implementation of our assistance, UNMIK invited me to a grave site they were exhuming.

There, in a shallow grave, the skeletal remains of 13 individuals were found with their hands and feet still bound with twine. It was clear they were executed as many had a single bullet wound through the back of their skulls. I had never seen anything that unsettling, and the images and emotions of that day remain fresh in my mind.

Yet compared to the pain the families of the missing continue to experience, my discomfort means little. More than two decades since the conflict ended in Kosovo, more than 1,600 people are still missing. Although resolving the fate of those that forcibly disappear during a conflict often takes many years in...