Bitter Rhetoric: The Politicisation of Missing Persons in Post-Conflict Kosovo

While the number of missing persons being identified has stagnated in recent years, the issue is increasingly hitting the headlines in both Kosovo and Serbia. There have been claims that the missing persons issue has been politicised and that the focus is no longer on increased humanitarian collaboration between Pristina and Belgrade to find those who are still missing, but that the issue is simply being used as a tool in a blame game between the capitals. 

This political instrumentalisation of the missing persons issue not only hinders collaboration in finding and identifying those still missing, but also contributes to an increasing distrust between the ethnic Albanian and Serb communities living in Kosovo today. 

These findings are based on my study entitled The Unresolved Fate of the Missing, conducted in the cities of Pristina and Mitrovica in the spring of 2022, exploring how the issue of missing persons from the 1998-99 conflict has an impact on trust between ethnic Albanians and Serbs living in Kosovo. Sixteen in-depth interviews were conducted with people of both Albanian and Serb origin who work with families of missing persons. 

The study found that the issue of missing persons does not in itself foster distrust between the communities. However, as politicians on both sides increasingly politicise the issue, playing into existing war narratives that are reinforced by a lack of contact between the two ethnic groups, it continues to affect inter-ethnic trust in Kosovo and will do as long as it remains unresolved.

One-sided narratives

A Kosovo Albanian woman at a protest about missing persons in front of the US office in Pristina, June 2005. Photo: EPA/VALDRIN XHEMAJ.

In Kosovo today, spaces where Albanians...