Twenty on Hunger Strike Over Fate of Missing Kosovo
Serbs
GRACANICA, Jul 20, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse)
About 20 Kosovo Serbs pursued a hunger strike on
Thursday in front of the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
here, demanding answers about the fate of 1,300 Serbs
missing in the province.
"We have been striking since Tuesday to request
information from the international community that
would allow us to find some of the 1,300 missing
people who were kidnapped," said strike organizer
Milorad Spasic.
"We are sure that some of them are still alive," said
Spasic, who is also the president of the Association
of Families of Missing People in Gracanica.
Spasic is also demanding that Pristina and Belgrade
exchange information on the possible whereabouts of
the missing people.
"We will continue until we get good news, some hope,"
said Spasic, reclined on a mattress under a tree to
escape the searing heat. Spasic's son and son-in-law
have been missing since May 1998.
About 1,300 Kosovo Serbs and 2,500 Albanians have gone
missing since the start of the 1998-99 conflict in the breakaway
Yugoslav province, as well as since the arrival of the multinational
KFOR peacekeeping force in June 1999. The families of the missing Serbs
accuse the now disbanded Kosovo Revolutionary Army (KLA), the province's
rebel army, of kidnapping them and most likely killing them. Spasic
suspects that ethnic Albanians are holding Serbs in secret prisons
located both in Kosovo and Albania. But there is no proof that Serbs are
being held in secret prisons in the UN-administered province, said UNMIK
spokeswoman Susan Manuel. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is
currently attempting to meet with two former KLA leaders -- former rebel
political leader Hashim Thaci and military commander Agim Ceku -- to
discuss the fate of the missing. ((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)
Serbian News Network - SNN
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