On the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared – 30 August, the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) highlights the insufficient systemic efforts and dedication to locating and identifying all forcibly disappeared persons from the 1990s. Establishing all the circumstances and the fate of their disappearance would allow the families of the missing their right to know the fate of their loved ones.
In Montenegro, even on this anniversary, the list of missing persons, totaling 51 names, remains unchanged, with an unofficial announcement that one case might be closed by the end of this year. According to the Government Commission for Missing Persons, most disappearances occurred in 1999 – 35 individuals. Six people disappeared in 1993, four in 1998, and three in 1992. During 1995, two people went missing, and one person in 1991. Among the missing, 44 are male and seven are female, with an average age of 47 years. The youngest missing person is Agron Berisha, who was only 17 years old at the time of his disappearance, while the oldest are Murat Hasić and Binak Joljaj, both aged 81. Of the 51 missing persons, 39 disappeared in Kosovo, nine in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three in Croatia.
However, it is important to note that this is not a final list, even though it is official, as some missing persons are not included despite being Montenegrin citizens at the time of their disappearance or having families who later tied their lives to Montenegro.
The family of Tomislav Adžić, who disappeared in 1999 in Kosovo, describes the abduction of their father as particularly significant, as he was, according to them, summoned to Pristina by the Dutch contingent of KFOR to deliver documentation for an apartment that had been seized by representatives of the KLA. “The abduction occurred practically in the presence of the Irish KFOR contingent and many witnesses, who confirmed that our father was taken to the KLA headquarters, which was then located in the ‘Victorija’ hotel in Pristina,” says one of his sons, who is now a Montenegrin citizen living in Montenegro.
The Adžić family also emphasizes that the initial investigation was conducted by KFOR and the OSCE, during which they were informed that their father was on a list for exchange. The case was later taken over by the War Crimes Office in Pristina and UNMIK police, who concluded the investigation in 2005. “When we tried to obtain the investigation results and access the case files, we faced obstruction, which was generally the practice with all relevant institutions. Despite the abundance of written evidence and witness statements, no one was willing to seriously pursue the investigation or hold those responsible for the abduction accountable,” they state, adding that “if this does not happen, we can only expect that these crimes, unfortunately, may be repeated.”
Elsana Nurković, one of the six daughters of Halit Nurković, a taxi driver from Rožaje who disappeared in Kosovo in 1999, assesses that throughout the entire period, the responses from our institutions were frighteningly inadequate and largely focused on explaining that none of them were responsible for searching for the missing person.
She highlights one of the greatest challenges associated with enforced disappearances as the fact that a person literally vanishes as if they had never existed. “By being removed from legal and administrative frameworks, the person ceases to exist in the eyes of society—they become erased, invisible, and stripped of their fundamental rights. We, like surely all those whose family members have been erased in this way, find ourselves in this legal labyrinth where law and justice are even harder to attain,” she observes.
Nurković also notes that instead of receiving support and assistance, they were met with a lawsuit from the state of Montenegro. “The Montenegrin Pension Fund sued us over the payment of our father’s pension after his disappearance. Although we were entitled to his pension as regular students, we needed an official confirmation of his death to claim this right. Consequently, we were forced to declare our father dead through the court, even though we still believed he was alive and were searching for him in Kosovo. The cancellation of the pension eliminated our only source of income.” This process was resolved in favor of the family with the assistance of the Humanitarian Law Center from Belgrade.
Tomislav Adžić and Halit Nurković are not on the list of missing persons that the Commission in Montenegro is searching for.
The Adžić and Nurković families agree that greater engagement from the authorities is needed, as they must provide both legal and other forms of assistance to the families of the missing. They do not expect sympathy from the authorities, but rather justice, truth, and dignity for their loved ones. They assert that even “knowing that there is an active search for their missing family member brings some comfort.”
Damir Suljević, Program Associate