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29 August 2013: On the International Day of the Disappeared, the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina/EU Special Representative and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) highlighted progress made and areas for improvement in efforts to account for the approximately 30,000 persons missing from the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Following a painstaking process of locating mass graves and recovering and identifying mortal remains using modern scientific methods, over 70 %, or 22,000 of the missing persons from the BiH conflict have been accounted for.
“Globally, this is an unprecedented achievement. Nowhere in the world after conflict have so many missing persons been located and identified. This is a joint success of the families of missing, the local authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the international community,” said Ambassador Peter Sorenson, Head of the EU Delegation/EU Special Representative in BiH.
According to Kathryne Bomberger, Director-General of the ICMP, approximately 9,000 persons remain unaccounted for in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ms. Bomberger noted that, “it is critical to the future peace and stability of the region that BiH and the other governments in the region remain vigilant in their efforts to account for the missing regardless of their ethnic, religious or national origin in a transparent and accountable manner.”
The EU and the ICMP today highlight several key issues that must be addressed to enable progress in addressing missing persons cases in BiH and to ensure that the rights of survivors’ groups are met. These include:
• Full implementation of the Law on Missing Persons, and the Fund for Families of the Missing, which was foreseen in the law, should be created. While the Law on Missing Persons was created in 2004, lack of implementation has had a negative effect on the rights of thousands of relatives of the missing. The non-implementation of certain aspects of the Law was also recognized by the BiH Constitutional Court in at least 15 decisions dealing with missing persons.
• Although foreseen in the same law, the Central Records of missing persons from the conflict have not been created. While progress has been made in the last year, the Missing Persons Institute and other authorities should expedite the creation of these records, enabling the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to speak with one voice regarding the number and names of those who went missing.
• The process of prosecuting those who were responsible for committing war crimes and other atrocities needs to be expedited. BiH authorities, with the assistance of ICMP have excavated almost 3,000 mass and clandestine gravesites around the country. In addition, over 14,000 persons have been recovered and accurately identified using DNA. The information obtained from this process provides hard evidence for court purposes and allows the families of the missing the right to justice.
• The process of conducting an inventory of the 11 mortuaries in BiH began this year. This review is essential to ensuring that all conflict-related mortal remains that have been recovered can be identified. ICMP has DNA-based information that the skeletal remains of over 2,500 individuals are currently housed as unidentified in these 11 mortuaries. Furthermore, almost 27,000 relatives of the missing have provided blood reference samples to ICMP, which account for 9,000 missing individuals, which ICMP cannot match to the mortal remains stored in the 11 mortuaries. The reasons for this need to be clarified by BiH authorities through an inventory process of all mortuaries in an expeditious, transparent and professional manner.[:bs]
Na međunarodni dan nestalih lica, Delegacija Evropske unije u Bosni i Hercegovini / Ured specijalnog predstavnika EU i Međunarodna komisija za nestala lica (ICMP) naglašavaju ostvareni napredak i oblasti koje je potrebno unaprijediti u nastojanjima da se pronađe oko 30.000 lica nestalih u sukobima u Bosni i Hercegovini.
Nakon bolnog procesa lociranja masovnih grobnica i ekshumacije i utvrđivanja identiteta posmrtnih ostataka pomoću modernih naučnih metoda, pronađeno je više od 70%, ili 22.000 lica nestalih u sukobima u BiH.
„Globalno, ovo je dostignuće bez presedana. Nigdje u svijetu nije nakon sukoba toliki broj nestalih lica pronađen i identifikovan. To je zajednički uspjeh porodica nestalih, lokalnih vlasti u Bosni i Hercegovini i međunarodne zajednice“, izjavio je ambasador Peter Sorensen, šef Delegacije EU / specijalni predstavnik EU u BiH.
Prema riječima Kathryne Bomberger, generalne direktorice ICMP-a, u Bosni i Hercegovini još uvijek nije pronađeno oko 9.000 lica. Bomberger je dodala da je „za budući mir i stabilnost regiona od najvećeg značaja da BiH i druge vlade u regionu zadrže pozornost u svojim nastojanjima da pronađu nestale bez obzira na njihovo porijeklo u pogledu nacije, vjere ili zemlje, na transparentan i odgovoran način“.
EU i ICMP danas ističu nekoliko pitanja koja se moraju riješiti kako bi se ostvario napredak u rješavanju predmeta nestalih lica u BiH i ostvarila prava grupa preživjelih lica. Među njima su i sljedeća:
• Potrebna je u potpunosti primjeniti Zakon o nestalim licima i osnovati fond za porodice nestalih lica, koji je predviđen zakonom. Iako je Zakon o nestalim licima izrađen 2004. godine, njegovo nesprovođenje negativno je uticalo na prava nekoliko hiljada srodnika nestalih lica. Nesprovođenje određenih aspekata Zakona takođe je priznao i Ustavni sud BiH u najmanje 15 odluka koje se odnose na nestala lica.
• Iako predviđena tim istim zakonom, centralna evidencija lica nestalih u sukobima nije uspostavljena. Iako je prošle godine ostvaren napredak, Institut za nestala lica i druge institucije treba da ubrzaju uspostavljanje ove evidencije, što će vlastima Bosne i Hercegovine omogućiti da govori jednim glasom o broju i imenima nestalih.
• Proces procesuiranja odgovornih za ratne zločine i zvjerstva treba ubrzati. Vlasti u BiH, uz pomoć ICMP-a, otvorile su skoro 3.000 masovnih i skrivenih grobnica širom zemlje. Pored toga, preko 14.000 lica je ekshumirano i tačno identifikovano pomoću DNK. Podaci do kojih se došlo u ovom procesu predstavljaju nepobitne dokaze koji se koriste u sudske svrhe i omogućavaju porodicama nestalih pravo na pravdu.
• Proces revizije 11 mrtvačnica u BiH počeo je ove godine. Ova revizija je neophodna da bi se obezbijedilo identifikovanje svih ekshumiranih posmrtnih ostataka iz proteklih sukoba. ICMP raspolaže podacima na osnovu DNK da su posmrti ostaci preko 2.500 lica koja se vode kao neidentifikovana pohranjeni u ovih 11 mrtvačnica. Uz to, skoro 27.000 srodnika nestalih lica dali su referentne uzorke krvi ICMP-u za 9.000 nestalih lica, koje ICMP ne može da poveže sa posmrtnim ostacima pohranjenim u 11 mrtvačnica. Razloge za to treba da daju vlasti BiH kroz proces brze, transparentne i profesionalne revizije svih mrtvačnica.[:ar][:es][:]
