The Institute of Wartime Crimes in Kosovo (IKKL) has published its report on war victims, documenting 12,230 people killed or missing during the period January 1, 1998 – June 20, 1999.
During the presentation of the report, the acting Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, announced that among the victims are 1,047 children killed, while 94 other children lost their lives as a result of the war conditions. According to him, the fate of around 100 missing children is still unknown.
Kurti said that only during the March-June 1999 period, about 9,000 people were killed, while he emphasized that the documentation of crimes is necessary for historical memory, justice and lasting peace.
“Without documentation, there is no lasting memory, justice and peace”, declared Kurti, calling on citizens who have information to cooperate with the institute to complete the data.
The acting Prime Minister criticized Serbia for not implementing the Declaration on Missing Persons, agreed in Brussels on May 2, 2023, as well as for not opening the military archives that, according to him, could help clarify the fate of the missing persons.
The director of IKKL, Atdhe Hetemi, clarified that the report does not include 267 cases from the previous lists, as it is about persons killed outside the territory of Kosovo. He emphasized that this exception does not deny them the status of a victim, but is related to the criteria defined in the report.
According to Hetem, the list is still preliminary and will continue to be supplemented with new data and evidence. The report was drawn up on the basis of institutional sources, testimonies of family members and research of the institute, based on the principles of completeness, comparability, traceability and integrity of data.
The demographic analysis of the report shows that most of the victims were men, while the most affected age group was 18 to 50 years old. Children and people over 65 are among the most vulnerable groups during the conflict.
According to IKKL data, the areas most affected by war victims were the regions of Gjakova, Mitrovica and Prishtina, while the region of Gjilan has the lowest number of victims. The largest number of losses was recorded during 1999, especially in the first months of that year.
