يشارك
Participants at meetings organized this week by ICMP in Tuzla and Brcko – the first of a series of Town Hall meetings that will be held throughout the country during February – unanimously agreed that the book-length Stocktaking Report published by ICMP, which describes two decades of work on accounting for missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a valuable platform for further dialogue on missing persons issues based on documented facts.
“We find and we feel that the issue of missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been addressed by ICMP without any kind of discrimination,” Milja Mitrovic of the Bijeljina Association of Missing Persons and the RS Association of Missing Persons said at the conclusion of today’s meeting in Brcko. “The presentation of the Stocktaking Report reflects this.”
At both meetings, representatives of associations of families of missing persons, the BiH Missing Persons Institute, the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, and the BiH Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees agreed that effective communication among all stakeholders is crucial in order to sustain the process of accounting for the missing.
“Several important steps forward have been taken by the BiH authorities,” Matthew Holliday, head of ICMP’s Western Balkans Program, said today in Brcko. “The institutional infrastructure – the BiH Law on Missing Persons and the MPI – is in place. ICMP is confident that the institutions are now in a position to use their expertise and authority to help the families of missing persons.”
ICMP began both meetings by presenting BiH, Missing Persons from the Armed Conflicts of the 1990s: A Stocktaking, which describes two decades of efforts to account for the missing and examines specific issues in Lower Podrinje, Upper Podrinje, Herzegovina, Sarajevo, Posavina, Central Bosnia, Northeast Bosnia and Western Bosnia.
The Stocktaking Report recommends next steps, including:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina must sustain the effort to account for the remaining 8,000 persons missing from the conflict by ensuring that its institutions, including the Missing Persons Institute and the BIH Prosecutor’s Office remain strong and engaged;
- BIH must fully implement the Law on Missing Persons, which provides for the Central Records on Missing Persons (CEN), as well as for a Fund benefiting the families of the missing;
- BIH should explore new approaches to locating gravesites, including aerial and satellite imagery;
- The ongoing effort of systematically reassessing past processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s mortuaries should be continued as a priority; and
- Associations of family members of missing persons should continue their lobbying efforts to claim their rights to truth and justice. In particular they should continue to convene annual Regional Conferences to advocate for their rights and to ensure that progress is sustained in the future.
Town Hall meetings to discuss further steps in accounting for the missing in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be held on 10 February at Hotel Sarajevo, on 12 February at Hotel Bristol in Mostar and on 17 February at Hotel Bosna in Banja Luka.
Učesnici tribina koje su ove sedmice u Tuzli i Brčkom organizovali predstavnici ICMP-a – prve dvije u nizu javnih tribina koje će se u Gradskim vijećnicama održavati tokom mjeseca februara u cijeloj državi – jednoglasno su se složili da je ICMP-ev nedavno objavljen Izvještaj o pregledu stanja u BiH, kojim se opisuje dvadesetogodišnji rad na pitanjima nestalih osoba u BiH, jedna korisna platforma za dalji dijalog o ovom pitanju, zasnovan na dokumentovanim činjenicama.
“Smatramo da ICMP bez bilo kakve diskriminacije pristupa problemu nestalih osoba u Bosni i Hercegovini,” izjavila je na kraju današnje tribine u Brčkom Milja Mitrović iz Udruženja nestalih osoba Bijeljina i Udruženja nestalih osoba Republike Srpske. “Ovo se reflektuje i u prezentaciji Izvještaja o pregledu stanja.”
Tokom ove dvije tribine, predstavnici udruženja porodica nestalih osoba, Instituta za nestale osobe BiH, Tužilaštva BiH, te BiH Ministarstva za ljudska prava i izbjeglice, složili su se da je učinkovita komunikacija među svim interesnim stranama presudna da bi se održao proces traženja nestalih u Bosni i Hercegovini.
“Vlasti BiH su već poduzele nekoliko važnih koraka,” izjavio je danas u Brčkom Matthew Holliday, šef ICMP-evog Programa za Zapadni Balkan. “Instituciona infrastruktura – BiH Zakon o nestalim osobama, je na snazi, a i Institut za nestale osobe je na raspolaganju. U ICMP-u su uvjereni da institucije sada mogu da koriste njihovu stučnost i nadležnost za pomoć porodicama nestalih osoba.”
ICMP je započeo obe javne tribine prezentacijom izvještaja pod nazivom Osobe nestale usljed oružanih sukoba 90tih godina u BiH: Pregled stanja, koji opisuje dvadesetogodišnje napore uložene prema pronalasku nestalih, te razmatra specifična pitanja u Donjem Podrinju, Gornjem Podrinju, Herzegovini, Sarajevu, Posavini, Centralnoj Bosni, Sjeveroistočnoj i Zapadnoj Bosni.
Najvažnije preporuke
- Bosna i Hercegovina mora ostati aktivna u procesu pronalaženja preostalih 8.000 osoba nestalih u sukobu tako što će osnažiti svoje institucije, među njima Institut za nestale osobe i Tužilaštvo BiH, i osigurati njihovu uključenost u rješavanje pitanja nestalih;
- BiH mora u potpunosti primjenjivati Zakon o nestalim osobama koji predviđa osnivanje Centralne evidencije nestalih (CEN) i Fonda za potporu porodicama nestalih osoba;
- BiH treba istražiti nove mogućnosti pronalaženja grobnica, uključujući upotrebu zračnih i satelitskih snimaka;
- potrebno je nastaviti započete aktivnosti sistematskog pregleda stanja u mrtvačnicama u BiH kao prioritet;
- konačno, udruženja porodica nestalih osoba trebaju nastaviti lobirati za svoje pravo na istinu i pravdu. Posebno je važno da nastave održavanje godišnje regionalne konferencije, kako bi zagovarali svoja prava i osigurali održiv napredak u budućnosti.
Tribine na kojim će se raspravljati o narednim koracima prema pronalaženju nestalih ososba, održaće se i u Hotelu Sarajevo u Sarajevu 10. februara, zatim u Hotelu Bristol u Mostaru, 12. februara i u Hotelu Bosna u Banja Luci 17. februara.
