Delite
[:en]13 November 2015: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) will endeavor to work in the Western Balkans as long as families of the missing and relevant institutions continue to request its assistance, ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger said in an interview published today in BH Dani. She pointed out that while more than 70 percent of the 40,000 people who went missing during the conflict have been accounted for, the fate of around 12,000 persons is still unknown, “which means that there is a lot of work still to be done.”
In December last year five governments signed an Agreement on ICMP, granting it a new status as an intergovernmental organization with a global mandate. The agreement stipulated that the organization would move its headquarters to The Hague, and this has now been done. However, a number of functions will remain in Bosnia and Herzegovina for several years. In addition, as long as funding can be secured, ICMP will support institutions in the region that are responsible for accounting for the missing, Bomberger said.
In the region, the authorities can continue to rely on ICMP’s standing capacity to resolve complex missing persons cases, Bomberger said. Since the summer of this year, the influx of refugees moving through the Balkans to northern Europe has created a new missing persons crisis. The precise number of those who have died or who have gone missing during the migration is not known but is likely to be high.
She said ICMP would continue to help the domestic authorities document crimes, including the excavation of mass or clandestine graves, and the provision of expert witness testimony in war crimes cases at the ICTY and in local courts.
And ICMP would work with the authorities to ensure that the Central Records of missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina are verified and that the Fund for the Families of the Missing is established, she said.
She added that ICMP would seek to maintain existing programs or launch new ones in other countries; it would help governments complete the regional database of missing persons so that they can close cases more efficiently; and that it would continue to support regional cooperation among associations of families of missing persons, including joint forms of memorialization, as well as helping to train prosecutors, judges and forensic experts.
The full text of Kathryne Bomberger’s interview with BH Dani can be accessed here.[:bs]Međunarodna komisija za nestale osobe (ICMP) ostat će na području zapadnog Balkana sve dok porodicama nestalih osoba i relevantnim institucijama bude potrebna pomoć ICMP-a, kazala je Kathryne Bomberger, generalna direktorica ICMP-a u intervjuu za magazin “Dani”. Iako je više od 70% od 40.000 osoba nestalih tokom konflikta pronađeno, još uvijek je nepoznata sudbina 12.000 osoba, što znači da još mnogo posla treba biti urađeno kako bi se pronašle nestale osobe na zapadnom Balkanu, dodala je Bomberger.
U decembru 2014. godine vlade pet država potpisale su Sporazum o statusu i funkcijama ICMP-a, čime je ICMP dobio status međunarodne organizacije sa globalnim mandatom i sa sjedištem u Hagu.
Međutim, veliki broj funkcija ICMP-a ostat će u Bosni i Hercegovini narednih nekoliko godina. Osim toga, ICMP će podržavati regionalne institucije koje su odgovorne za traženje nestalih osoba, sve dok se finansijska sredstva budu mogla osigurati za to, rekla je Bomberger.
Regionalne vlasti i dalje mogu računati na pomoć ICMP-a u rješavanju složenih slučajeva nestalih osoba. Od ljeta ove godine, priliv izbjeglica koje prolaze kroz Balkan na putu ka sjevernoj Europi, kreirao je novu krizu kada je riječ o nestalim osobama. Precizan broj osoba koje su umrle ili su nestale tokom migracije nije poznat, ali se vjeruje da će biti visok, dodala je generalna direktorica ICMP-a.
Ona je izjavila da će ICMP nastaviti da pomaže domaćim vlastima u dokumentovanju zločina, uključujući i ekshumacije masovnih ili tajnih grobnica, te u pružanju stručnih iskaza vještaka u slučajevima ratnih zločina pred tribunalom u Hagu i domaćim sudovima.
ICMP će, također, raditi sa vlastima u cilju osiguravanja verifikacije Centralne evidencije nestalih osoba, kao i osnivanja Fonda za potporu porodicama nestalih osoba.
Dodala je kako će ICMP tražiti održavanje postojećih programa ili pokretanje novih u drugim zemljama; to će pomoći vladama da dovrše izradu regionalne baze podataka o nestalim osobama, kako bi se slučajevi mogli efikasno završiti; podržavati će regionalnu saradnju asocijacija porodica nestalih osoba, uključujući i zajedničke oblike sjećanja, te će asistirati u obučavanju tužitelja, sudija i forenzičkih stručnjaka.
Kompletnom intervjuu sa Kathryne Bomberger, generalnom direktoricom ICMP-a možete pristupiti ovdje.[:]
