The Unresolved Fate of the Missing: Ambiguous Loss and Intergroup Trust in Post-Conflict Kosovo

Abstract

This thesis explores how the unresolved fate of missing persons impacts the trust between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo, 23 years after conflict. Through a qualitative study based on 16 interviews conducted in Kosovo in the Spring of 2022, it finds that the issue of missing persons does not in itself foster distrust between the communities. Yet, by being increasingly politicized by both sides, and by playing into existing war narratives that are reinforced by a lack of contact between the groups, it continues to impact intergroup trust in Kosovo as long as it remains unresolved, and as long as families of missing persons are forced to experience ambiguous loss. While much research has examined how it impacts families to not know what has happened to a missing loved, this study contributes to a better understanding of the consequences of ambiguous loss on an intergroup level, and how the legacies of Kosovo conflict (1998-99) impact the relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo today.