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An exhumation in the Kosovo town of Mitrovica in 2017. Photo: BIRN.

The Serbian government’s Commission for Missing Persons confirmed on Tuesday that an agreement on the future repatriation of exhumed war victims’ remains has been signed with the Kosovo authorities.

“We have specified ways for mutual cooperation,” the Commission told BIRN.

The head of the Kosovo government’s commission on missing persons, Prenk Gjetaj, also confirmed an agreement paving the way for repatriation of human remains that have been identified.

“The agreement was initially between Serbia and [the UN’s Kosovo mission] UNMIK, and later [EU rule-of-law mission] EULEX, but now the competencies are being passed to locals [Kosovo institutions],” Gjetaj told Kosovo’s public broadcaster RTK on Monday.

Meanwhile Arsim Gerxhaliu, the head of the Forensics Department in Pristina, said he was waiting for the UN to submit findings from a recent test carried out by a ground-penetrating radar to detect human remains in several locations in Serbia and Kosovo.

“There are no results yet, we also mentioned this issue in Belgrade… we will see in the coming days if we will go back to those locations [for exhumations],” Gerxhaliu told RTK.

The Kosovo authorities say there are 1,658 people still missing as a result of the war, 561 of whom are Serbs.

The Serbian Commission for Missing Persons says that it is seeking 570 Serbs and non-Albanians missing from the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

The issue of missing persons has so far not been tackled in the European Union-facilitated dialogue aimed at normalising relations between Kosovo and Serbia, which started in 2011.

Read more:

Missing Persons: Balkan Families Suffer as Search Goes On

Human Remains Found in Suspected Kosovo War Grave

Suspected Kosovo War Victim Exhumed in Albania