CGO: Systemic efforts insufficient to find forcibly disappeared persons

Damir Suljević, Program Associate at CGO, said that the list of missing persons in Montenegro with 51 names remains unchanged, with an unofficial announcement that one case could be closed by the end of the year.

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Suljević, Photo: CGO
Suljević, Photo: CGO
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

In the Center for Civic Education (CGO), they believe that systemic efforts and commitment are insufficient to find and identify all the forcibly disappeared persons of the 90s, which would determine the circumstances and outcome of their disappearance, and give the families the right to know the fate of their loved ones.

Damir Suljević, a program associate at CGO, said that the list of missing persons in Montenegro with 51 names remains unchanged, with an unofficial announcement that one case could be closed by the end of the year.

"The largest number of missing persons, according to the data of the Government Commission for the Missing, dates back to 1999 - 35 of them. Six persons disappeared in 1993, four persons in 1998, and three persons in 1992," Suljević said on the occasion. August 30, the International Day of the Missing.

He pointed out that two persons disappeared in 1995, and one in 1991.

"Among the missing persons, 44 persons are male and seven are female, with an average age of 47. The youngest missing person is Agron Beriša, who was only 17 years old when he disappeared, while the oldest missing persons are Murat Hasić and Binak Joljaj, both at the age of 81," said Suljević.

According to him, out of 51 people, 39 disappeared on the territory of Kosovo, nine in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three in Croatia.

"It should be noted that it is not a final list, even though it is official, and given that some missing persons are not included, even though they were Montenegrin citizens at the time of their disappearance or their families later tied their fate to Montenegro," said Suljević.

The family of Tomislav Adžić, who disappeared in Kosovo in 1999, assessed the case of their father's abduction as particularly interesting, because, according to them, he went to Pristina at the invitation of the Dutch contingent of KFOR, in order to deliver the documentation for the apartment that had been usurped from the representatives of the KLA.

"The abduction took place practically in the presence of the Irish contingent of KFOR and many witnesses, who confirmed that the father was taken to the KLA headquarters, which was then located in the hotel "Viktorija" in Pristina," says one of his sons, who today Montenegrin citizen and lives in Montenegro.

The Adžić family points out that the investigation was initially conducted by KFOR and OSCE, when they received information that their father was on the list for execution, after which the case was taken over by the War Crimes Office in Pristina and the UNMIK police, ending the investigation in 2005. year.

They stated that when they tried to find out the results of the investigation and to get the case files, they faced obstruction, which was in principle the practice of all competent institutions.

"Because regardless of the pile of written evidence and witness statements, no one wanted to seriously deal with the investigation and punish all those responsible for the kidnapping," they state, and add that "if this does not happen, we can only expect that these crimes, unfortunately, I can repeat," they said.

Elsana Nurković, one of the six daughters of Halit Nurković, a taxi driver from Rožaj, who disappeared in Kosovo in 1999, said that during the entire period, the reactions of our institutions were frighteningly inadequate and mostly focused on explanations that none of them were responsible for the search for with a missing face.

As one of the biggest challenges associated with enforced disappearance, he points out the fact that a person literally disappears, as if he never existed.

"By removing it from the legal and administrative framework, that person ceases to exist in the eyes of society - he becomes erased, invisible and deprived of his basic rights. We, like surely all those whose family members were erased in this way, found ourselves in that legal labyrinth, where law and justice are even more difficult to reach," she stated.

Nurković also states that instead of support and help, they received a lawsuit from the state of Montenegro.

"The Montenegrin pension fund sued us for paying my father's pension after his disappearance. Although we, as regular students, had the right to his pension, in order to exercise that right, we needed an official confirmation of his death," said Nurović.

She added that because of this they were forced to declare their father dead through the court, even though they still believed he was alive and searched for him in Kosovo.

"By abolishing the pension, our only source of income has been abolished." That process was resolved in favor of the family with the help of the Fund for Humanitarian Law from Belgrade," she said.

The CGE indicated that Tomislav Adžić and Halit Nurković are not on the list of missing persons sought by the Commission in Montenegro.

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