two women — one serb, one albanian — prepared to put aside the divisions that tore their worlds apart. the late 1990s conflict "> two women — one serb, one albanian — prepared to put aside the divisions that tore their worlds apart. the late 1990s conflict " property="og:description"> two women — one serb, one albanian — prepared to put aside the divisions that tore their worlds apart. the late 1990s conflict ">
two women — one serb, one albanian — prepared to put aside the divisions that tore their worlds apart. the late 1990s conflict between serb forces and albanian insurgents for the future of the former yugoslav province of kosovo left thousands dead. serbian forces attempted to rid the region of its ethnic albanian population. the kosovo liberation army retaliated. many civilians died — most of them men. around 5,800 people disappeared. 25 years later, and almost 1,600 people are still missing, leaving many mothers, wives, and sisters to lament birthdays uncelebrated, weddings unplanned, and grandchildren unborn. among them, kujtime, an ethnic albanian who's lived all her life in the city that's become kosovo�*s lasting symbol of ethnic partition. it was during that time that tragedy struck. dragica, an ethnic serb, lived in kosovo until the war forced her to flee to serbia. her 17—year—old son, ivan, went missing on the ill—fated journey tojoin her. during spring 1999, the war in kosovo entered its most intense phase. nato intervened in the war, targeting serbian forces they accused of ethnic cleansing. crimes against civilians intensified. kujtime and her family found themselves at the centre of a massacre in mitrovica, at theirfamily home. over the years, the experts working on recovering the missing have faced many obstacles in locating and identifying the remains. kosovo unilaterally declared independence from serbia in 2008. many countries recognise its independence, but not serbia. but, for experts to excavate the mass graves, both sides must work together. families of the missing on opposite sides faced the same problems. many spent years contacting institutions, governments, the military, embassies, and journalists in a desperate attempt to find any trace of their relatives. it took years before serbia and kosovo finally cooperated. but when they did, they worked jointly for over a decade, investigating and discovering new mass graves, and bringing news of missing loved ones to many families. they had identified two thirds of the missing before work stopped in 2021, due to rising tensions between belgrade and pristina. organisations on both sides of the former conflict are determined that the missing third are not forgotten. in mitrovica, gjyla haziri, together with kujtime, has been documenting the missing. dragica and kujtime lived 35km from each other in the same country, yugoslavia. the break—up of yugoslavia led to years of war and left communities divided — none more so than in mitrovica. this bridge, built to connect, now divides. to the south — kosovo albanians who are proud of what they see as their new country. to the north — kosovo serbs who pledge their allegiance to another. to this day, kujtime does not feel welcome in the northern part of her city. before the war, dragica lived in pristina — today, majority albanian. now she is returning to kosovo, to make contact with kujtime�*s organisation and visit her former neighbourhood. it's the day of missing persons in kosovo. to mark the occasion, the voice of parents organisation is calling for united multiethnic collaboration in the search for those still missing, and that the rights of families of the missing are not forgotten. kujtime never discovered how exactly her brother died, but she was one of those who found her missing relative�*s remains. after a decade of searching, they were excavated from a mass grave, along with a few personal belongings. dragica and kujtime have agreed to meet. emotions around the ethnic divides still run deep, and a meeting between women from different sides of the war is difficult for both of them. even though it's tough, both agree that these conversations have to be had. in serbia and kosovo, a generation has grown up not knowing the conflict and pain their parents knew. memories are fading. the world is moving on. but for those left behind, it remains an open wound. women like kujtime and dragica feel their respective governments have made promises they're yet to keep. they don't know when or how this will end. but in the meantime, they're united in their quest to preserve the memory of the missing. hello there. it's been a pretty decent start to the weekend. there was a good deal of sunshine around across most of the country. a bit of cloud here and there, a few showers, mostly in the north. part two of the weekend doesn't look quite as good. it will start sunny, quite chilly. but we've got a couple of weather fronts pushing down from the northwest that will increase cloud through the day, with some splashes of rain. now, we've got this weather front approaching the northwest of the country to move through this evening. showers merging together to produce longer spells of rain for the north and west of scotland. so unsettled, breezy, showery in the north, turning cloudier for northern ireland, but clearer skies for large parts of england and wales, with lighter winds here. so it will turn chilly for most. single digits, i think, for the majority of the country. but with more cloud across northern ireland, we will fall to around 10 degrees in belfast. so sunday, then, we've got low pressure still towards the norwegian sea there, bringing northern—westerly winds into the country. we start off with quite a bit of sunshine. scotland, england and wales, cloudy skies for northern ireland, southwest scotland, in towards north—west england, north wales. and that cloud, with splashes of rain, will spill south—eastwards through the day. so it will turn cloudy across much of england and wales, probably the best of the sunshine across the far southwest, and the northern half of scotland doing pretty well, with sunny spells. but there will be blustery showers here and a cooler day to come, i think, because of more cloud around — temperatures of about 12 to 17 degrees. as we move through sunday night, that area of rain splashes across the irish sea, into much of england and wales, becomes confined to southern and eastern areas by the end of the night. so where we have the cloud and the rain, then, a less cold night here, 10 to 12 degrees under clearer skies. further north, it will turn chilly. we start to pick up a northerly wind as we move into monday. that rain slowly clears away from the south and east. it may take a while to clear the east of england. eventually, it will do. then it's a bright day for most, sunshine and showers. most of these across the northern half of scotland, where they will be quite blustery and a chilly northerly wind at that. temperatures, 10 to 14 degrees in the north, 15 to 17 further south, giving some sunny spells. and we hold on to this chilly northerly wind through tuesday, even into wednesday as well. before low pressure starts to move in from the southwest, that'll cut off the chilly northerly and temperatures will slowly recover towards the end of the week. but it's going to be a fairly unsettled and a cool week to come, with a little bit of sunshine here and there. you will live from london. this is bbc news israel has been criticised by a senior european union official over the killing of dozens of palestinians in an operation in gaza yesterday the mission was to rescue four hostages who had been held ship in the territory since the hamas attacks eight months ago. election campaigning continues across the uk ahead of a key week — in which parties will set out their manifestos. major restoration work has begun in sweden to protect the wreck of a magnificent 17th century warship — the vasa — which is housed in a museum in stockholm. hello. i'm catherine byaruhanga. the eu's most senior diplomat — josep borrell — has strongly condemned the killing of palestinians in israel's hostage rescue mission — describing it as "another massacre of civilians". four israeli hostages taken by hamas during the october seventh attacks — were freed during the raid in nuseirat, in central gaza, in broad daylight. 0ne israeli soldier died. the hamas—run health ministry says more than 200 palestinians were killed in the raid. israel claims there were fewer than one hundred casualties. 0ur middle east correspondent hugo bachega has more from tel aviv. a dramatic rescue and she's free again. 25—year—old noa argamani, captured by hamas on the 7th