Arsim Gërxhaliu, Chief of the Forensics Department, has followed for
years the identification of human remains found in massive graves around
Kosovo and Serbia. Although his mission has met difficulties lately, he
has not given up.
Often, relatives don’t want to accept the death of their dear ones, even after the complicated process of verification, because they are lied to by agencies in Serbia. Gerxhaliu says even after DNA confrontations, families don’t retrieve the bodies cause they are told that the person is still alive in Serbia.
In some cases, the remains have been removed by Serbs to hide crime wars and parts of the same body have been found in different areas. Gerxhaliu says that in these years he has helped with the opening of 500 sites. He will never forget Batajnica, Serbia, where they found 150 bodies in nine mass graves.
Another unforgettable moment is when he identified the remains of the national hero, Isa Boletini; when he had found the remains of a 7-year-old girl with a bullet wound on her forehead, and when he identified the remains of a relative of Adem Jashari, the legendary hero of Kosovo.
Gerxhaliu himself has 40 relatives who were dead during the war. He hopes to open those graves one day to return dignity to those who don’t live anymore.
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