Process to Review Cases of Unidentified Mortal Remains in BiH Facilities is Welcomed by BiH Prosecutor and ICMP

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[:en]5 June 2013: A process initiated by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office to undertake a review of all mortuary facilities throughout BiH, started its activities at Gradsko Groblje ‘Sutina’ mortuary in Mostar. The review whose main actors will be the BiH Missing Persons Institute, Brčko DC and BiH Prosecutors’ Offices, will take stock of these facilities, i.e. it will inventory all unidentified remains in the 12 facilities within BiH.

There are currently some 9,300 cases in mortal remains storage facilities in Bosnia and Herzegovina that are unidentified. These cases are currently known to represent the mortal remains of approximately 2,500 individuals, for which ICMP has a unique genetic profile obtained from a bone sample received from local authorities. These have not been matched to over 9,000 full sets of blood samples voluntarily provided to ICMP by over 18,000 family members of the missing.

The inventory will determine the status of each case, and assess what work needs to be done so they may be resolved. ICMP is providing a dedicated team of anthropologists to give technical assistance to the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, MPI, cantonal and regional prosecution offices as well as the Brčko DC Prosecutor’s Office in their efforts to find a solution for each of these cases.’

“BIH Prosecutor’s Office supports all activities aimed at locating and identifying mortal remains of missing persons, since this is an important issue for the families of war crime victims. They have search for the mortal remains of their relatives for years in order to give them a dignified burial. This process is also important for war crime processing, as evidence in these court cases is often based on the located and identified victim mortal remains. The State of BiH and the International Community must support us in this process, because the issue of war crime processing is a key to establishing a rule of law in BiH”, said Goran Salihović, BiH Chief Prosecutor.

“ICMP has for years advised that the unidentified remains in BiH mortuaries need a thorough review. Thanks to the initiative of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office we hope that progress will finally be made in resolving the status of these cases and that as consequence we can make new identifications. This process will require close cooperation between ICMP, the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, MPI, court-appointed pathologists as well as entity and lower level prosecutor’s offices to be successful”, said ICMP Director General Kathryne Bomberger.

Of the 30,000 people estimated missing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, over 70 % have now been accounted for, of which the majority were accurately identified in cooperation with ICMP. ICMP was created in 1996 with the primary role of ensuring the cooperation of governments in locating and identifying missing persons.[:bs]Proces koji je iniciralo Tužilaštvo Bosne i Hercegovine za reviziju svih mrtvačnica i kosturnica u BiH započeo je aktivnostima na Gradskom groblju „Sutina“ u Mostaru. U toku procesa revizije, u kojem će glavni nositelji aktivnosti biti Institut za nestale osobe BiH, entitetska tužilaštva, Tužilaštvo Brčko distrikta BiH i Tužilaštvo BiH, utvrditi činjenično stanje u objektima, odnosno izvršit će se popis svih neidentifikovanih posmrtnih ostataka u 12 objekata u BiH.

Objekti za čuvanje posmrtnih ostataka u oba entiteta u BiH trenutno pohranjuju oko 9.300 neidentifikovanih slučajeva. Prikupljeni podaci ukazuju da ovi slučajevi predstavljaju 2.500 različitih individua, za koje je ICMP primio koštane uzorke i iz njih ekstraktovao genetske profile. Međutim, navedeni genetski profili se nisu podudarili ni sa jednim od preko 9.000 kompletnih „setova“ krvnih uzoraka u ICMP-ovoj bazi, koje je ICMP dobio od 18.000 srodnika nestalih osoba.

Popisom će se utvrditi status svakog pojedinačnog slučaja i procijeniti koje korake je potrebno preduzeti da se slučaj riješi. ICMP će dodijeliti svoj tim antropologa kako bi pomogli Tužilaštvu BiH, Institutu za nestale osobe (INO) BiH, kantonalnim i okružnim tužilaštvima i Tužilaštvu Brčko distrikta BiH i patolozima u njihovim nastojanjima da riješe ove slučajeve.

Glavni tužitelj Goran Salihović: „Tuziteljstvo BiH podržava sve aktivnosti usmjerene ka pronalasku i identifikaciji posmrtnih ostataka nestalih osoba, što će pomoći procesu traženja nestalih u BiH i porodicama žrtava rata i ratnih zločina da nakon dugo godina traganja za posmrtnim ostacima saznaju sudbinu svojih najmilijih, kako bi ih dostojno ukopali. Također, ovaj proces je važan i za procesuiranje predmeta ratnih zločina, u kojima se dokazi o zločinima često temelje na pronađenim i identificiranim posmrtnim ostacima žrtava. Očekujemo pomoć državnih institucija i međunarodne zajednice u ovom procesu, koji ima za cilj i efikasnije rješavanje predmeta ratnih zlocina u interesu pravde i vladavine prava u BiH“.

„ICMP već godinama savjetuje da neidentifikovani ostaci u mrtvačnicama u BiH trebaju proći reviziju. Zahvaljujući inicijativi Tužilaštva BiH nadamo se da će konačno biti ostvaren napredak u rasvjetljavanju ovih slučajeva i da ćemo kao rezultat toga doći do novih identifikacija. Za uspjeh procesa biće potrebna tijesna saradnja ICMP-a, Tužilaštva BiH, INO BIH, sudskih patologa kao i tužilaštava na entitetskim i nižim nivoima“, izjavila je generalna direktorica ICMP, Kathryne Bomberger.

Do danas je u BiH identifikovano preko 70% od oko 30.000 nestalih osoba, a većina ih je identifikovana uz saradnju ICMP-a. ICMP je ustanovljen 1996. godine sa ciljem da osigura saradnju vlada u procesu lociranja i identifikovanja nestalih osoba.
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