06 February 2007

2,150 people missing in Serbia's Kosovo

United Press International, Wednesday, December 06, 2006 11:41 AM

 

U.N. administrators in Kosovo said 2,150 people are missing since 1999 ethnic conflicts in Serbia's mainly ethnic-Albanian province.

 

The U.N. civil mission in Pristina said 5,206 people, ethnic-Albanians, Serbs and others, had originally been registered as missing in Kosovo after the armed conflicts in 1998 and 1999. Quoting data released by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the U.N. mission said the number was down to 2,150 last month.

 

Formally, Kosovo is Serbia's province but has been administered by a U.N. civil mission since NATO air raids ousted the Serbian army in 1999.

 

Serbian security forces of President Slobodan Milosevic clashed with ethnic-Albanian separatist units in 1998 and 1999, driving about 800,000 ethnic-Albanians to neighboring Macedonia and Albania.

 

Most of them have returned to Kosovo after the Serbian army withdrew from the province, officials said.

 

Since 1999, U.N. administrators and NATO troops have been stationed in Kosovo to contain further ethnic conflicts.