Families of kidnapped and murdered request meeting with PM

BELGRADE - The Association of the Families of the Kidnapped and Murdered in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) requested on Thursday a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic ahead of his trip to the next meeting within the dialogue on the normalization of relations with Pristina, set to take place in Brussels on February 9.

The members of the Association said they want to talk with the prime minister once again about their tragedy and problems they are facing in the search for their dearest.

They underscored that the Brussels meeting is very important for Serbs' survival in the southern province of Serbia, and for the families whose members were abducted and killed in KiM in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

They noted that there are no talks more important than those when human lives are at stake and underlined that the families of the abducted call for freedom for those closest to their heart, so that they can go back to their children and families.

According to the Commission tasked with collecting the data on the crimes against humanity and international law, a total of 3,276 people were killed or went missing amid the crimes committed by Albanian terrorists and the paramilitary formation, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), in KiM in the period from January 1998 to November 2001.

The total number of victims included 1,953 civilians of Serb and Montenegrin nationalities, 361 civilians of Albanian, and 266 civilians of Roma and other nationalities.

The list of the kidnapped and murdered included 321 members of the Army of Yugoslavia, 243 members of the interior ministry and 72 unidentified victims.

Even 14 years after the armed conflicts in the southern province, the Serbian government's Commission on...