By Zoran CULAFIC

Nations often misuse history, to promote their glory and their achievements, both real and imaginary. The Balkans is no exception to this tendency – but this kind of selective reading of facts, or outright exaggerations, applies to other issues as well. 4 years after the Kosovo conflict ended, the number of dead and missing remains a highly emotive issue for both Albanians and Serbs, and perhaps for that reason, it is sometimes used to gain political mileage.

Hello and welcome to UNMIK ON AIR with Sputnik Kilambi and Martin Redi

The number of Serbs reported dead or missing since 1999 as well as the figures related to Serb returns have been sparking controversy here in Kosovo.

A top Belgrade official recently claimed publicly that there were as many as 1500 Serbs killed in Kosovo, and that some 1300 people are still missing since June 1999. The figures are contested by UNMIK - Neeraj Singh, spokesperson of the Justice Department.

Neeraj Singh: That’s really a misrepresentation of the facts and it serves to portray that the security situation for minorities is more serious, more dangerous then it really is. Neeraj_2 - The figures that we have is that out of 921 people who have been murdered between June 99 and now - 266 were Serbs

The issue of people missing, killed or internally displaced as well as the issue of war crimes will be a subject of disagreement for some time to come, feels Enver Hoxa, a well-known Pristina. But Belgrade officials, he says, especially Nebojsa Covic, the head of the Kosovo Coordination Centre, are guilty of manipulating the figures.

Enver Hoxa: Mister Covic, for a while a Milosevic co-worker, belongs to the part of the Serb political elite which thinks they can create an image through numbers, that through numbers he can falsify one issue or another. And he tries, through numbers, to step on the dignity of those victims for the second time.

Debate on the real number of K-Serbs now displaced in Serbia or Montenegro has been widely reflected in the Prishtina press, with most K-Albanian analysts and politicians refuting Belgrade’s statistics. The Serbian government claims some 250.000 Serbs and other minority communities were driven out of Kosovo after the end of the war. According to UNHCR estimates, 187.129 IDPs registered in Serbia in 2000 and a further 29.435 in Montenegro. As of July 1st 2003, this figure had jumped to 205.391 in Serbia and 28.547 in Montenegro. Monica Ellena, UNHCR spokesperson.

Monica Ellena: There is of course a discrepancy between 2000 and 2003 because in three years we have had a movement of people. It is true that we had returns in Kosovo, but we also had a departure from Kosovo to Serbia. But these are the figures we’ve got from close monitoring.

Belgrade officials also quibble about the real number of K-Albanians now living in Kosovo - K-Albanians say there are 2 or even 2.5 million K-Albanians in Kosovo. According to Belgrade, at least a few hundred thousand people came from Albania and settled in Kosovo after the war. The real figure is difficult to assess, given that the last census was conducted in 1981.

But if the international community continues to work on this issue at its current pace, says Milorad Pejcinpovic from the Coordination Center, it will need 200 years to find all the missing people and bury them. And not surprisingly, Milorad Pejcinpovic finds himself in total disagreement with the K-Albanian stance on this issue.

Milorad Pejcinpovic: They make strong accusations against the Serbs, yet the Serbs have released all those who were in prison in Serbia. Even those who committed the worst crimes like Mazreku brothers in Klecka, and many others who were members of so-called KLA have been released from Serbia’s prisons. However, our innocent people were kidnapped only so that they could be exchanged with KLA members. Imagine, to kidnap a man from his home, from his flat, from his working place … what is that other than terrorism? But they succeeded in getting their people released without any swap, not a single one of ours has been released.

As far as he is aware, adds Pejcinpovic, many of the missing people are dead, but there are still some Serbs in prisons in Kosovo, and these should be released.

Milorad Pejcinpovic: I know that the majority of them were killed in the first assault, but there were many who were taken prisoner, while others were transferred to KLA HQ. Thus a command responsibility exists and we’ll call on these commanders who were in key positions in the KLA to see what happened with these people. There are witnesses and there are statements. We want to see what happened with these people, where are they now.

There is no room for conflict regarding the number of missing and dead or internally displaced, insists Neeraj Singh. Only UNMIK figures can be considered valid, since it has been present in Kosovo since June 1999. UNMIK estimates that 4.000 people are still missing from June 99 in Kosovo, out of which 982 are Serbians. And out of this number, more than 60 percent went missing between 11^th June and 24^th June 1999, that is, in the first weeks when the deployment of KFOR troops was still underway.

There are obviously many political motives in this war of numbers between K-Serbs and K-Albanians. But by getting into this game, warns Neeraj Singh, politicians are sending the wrong message to the public. Bringing national values and interests into this whole debate can only undermine the whole process of democratic institution building he says.

Neeraj Singh: We cannot deny political motives. But what are the motives for these groups to come up with figures, which are totally removed from the reality, and particularly when we see that they come up with figures, which are absolutely removed from the facts. We cannot but see some ulterior motives in such a statements. If people within Kosovo or outside get a wrong perception of the level of the security that is going to have far reaching consequences for Kosovo and for the returns and the entire international community in fact.

And that comment from UNMIK Justice department spokesman Neeraj Singh brings us to an end of this program. Thanks for listening.