UN envoy assures Kosovars of support in finding missing persons

The head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr. Bernard Kouchner, has assured Kosovars that he would arrange audiences for them with European leaders to exert pressure to find missing family members.
"I understand the suffering and anxiety of the family members. Even if we get bad news, we need to know. I'll do my utmost to help find them," said Dr. Kouchner on Wednesday during a visit to Djakova, a small town in southwest Kosovo where he met with members of the Municipal Council and the Missing Persons Association. Approximately 1,000 to 1,500 people from Djakova are still missing since the war began a year ago.

Dr. Kouchner said he was disappointed that so many human rights reporters had not made the cause of missing persons a priority. However, he told the families that during his recent visit to New York he had asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a human rights special representative to investigate what has happened to those still unaccounted for.

"I gave a list of the missing people of Djakova to the Security Council," he reassured the families.