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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Active role of ICMP in investigating organ trade in Kosovo

Belgrade, 17 February 2011

President of the Serbian Committee for Missing Persons Veljko Odalovic stated today that a more active role of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) is required in investigations into human organ trade in Kosovo-Metohija.

Veljko Odalovic, left, and Kathryne Bomberger

Author: Tanjug

Odalovic told a press conference, following a meeting with ICMP Director Kathryne Bomberger, that data bases on blood and bone marrow samples are with the ICMP, adding that the remains of the victims must be found, indentified and corelated to the perpetrators, which will be a key element of the upcoming investigation.

Over 14,000 people in the region are registered as missing persons, a fact deserving of the attention of all who are involved in this process and have been given a mandate by their states to tackle this issue, he added.

One of the key problems is the unsolved case of over 400 bodies that have been in the Pristina morgue for ten years and which cannot be identified, Odalovic said.

There are bone marrow samples, but no matches with blood samples from relatives of missing persons.

Odalovic stressed that Serbia approached the missing persons issue in a responsible manner and responded to every demand – in terms of supplying documentation, any information it has or by exhuming bodies and searching central Serbia as demanded by the Pristina delegation.

We must establish full cooperation with institutions dealing with this process in Kosovo-Metohija, Odalovic noted, adding that a meeting between EULEX and the ICMP is necessary in order to clarify any misunderstandings or misinterpretations regarding the reports of these two institutions.

Bomberger stressed that the process of identifying the remains of missing persons in Kosovo-Metohija has come to a stall, adding that apart from not being able to match the samples of remains with blood samples of victims’ relatives, the number of mass graves has decreased from 2005 and thus also the number of exhumed bodies.

One of the possible reasons for the current stall are misidentifications that were announced in the period before DNA tests were used, and the other may be the fact that some of these remains do not belong to persons killed during this conflict.