Implementation of the BiH Law on Missing Persons must be expedited, say members of BiH Missing Persons Institute Advisory Board

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[:en]The Hague 17 January 2020: Authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina must fully implement the provisions of the country’s missing persons law, representatives of the BiH Missing Persons Institute (MPI) Advisory Board emphasized during a visit this week to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.

Full implementation of the Law on Missing Persons, which was created in 2004 would require the establishment of a verified BiH Central Record of Missing Persons and the creation of the BiH Fund for Families of the Missing. The Fund would provide financial support to families of the missing, regardless of the national or religious origin of the relative of the missing person, or the circumstances of the disappearance of the missing person.

“We want to work together for all victims. We want government institutions to work together and take responsibility,” said MPI Advisory Board Member Amir Kulaglic. “We have had great results, but we still have missing persons – the families of 7,000 missing persons are still waiting for answers.”

Mr Kulaglic and Advisory Board members Jela Mandic and Fikret Bacic called on BiH authorities to develop a strategy to implement the law on missing persons. If such efforts fail, the law must be amended, they argued.

The visit of the Advisory Board members also included a briefing on ICMP’s continued technical support to BiH, including DNA-based identifications. The Advisory Board also learned about ICMP’s pioneering use of Massively Parallel Sequencing (MPS) methods to find DNA matches in cases that could not be solved with current Short Tandem Repeat (STR) methods. MPS enables analysis of degraded samples and can find matches in cases in which no DNA samples from close family members are available.   Using MPS, ICMP has made six new identifications relevant to BiH.

“This new technology gives us hope,” Mr Kulaglic said.

ICMP has assisted the governments in the Western Balkans account for over 70% of the 40,000 persons who went missing during the 1990s conflicts. In BiH, ICMP assisted authorities in finding over 75% of the 30,000 who went missing, including almost 90% of the 8,000 persons who were missing following the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. More than half of the 12,000 who remain missing in the region are from BiH.

In addition, ICMP assisted BiH in drafting the 2004 Law on Missing Persons and helped BiH establish the Missing Persons Institute, which was inaugurated in 2005.

ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger lauded the work of the Advisory Board to defend the rights of all families of the missing.

The visit was part of a two-year project supported by the Government of the United Kingdom and being implemented by ICMP, to ensure the cooperation of the regional governments in finding the remaining 12,000 people who are still missing throughout the region. Countries in the region have formally undertaken to work together as the regional Missing Persons Group, maintaining a process that has already made it possible to account for more than 70 percent of the missing. ICMP facilitates the work of the MPG.

In June 2018 heads of governments from the Western Balkans meeting in London signed a Joint Declaration renewing their commitment to cooperate in the effort to account for those who are still missing. The Joint Declaration was followed by the signing of a Framework Plan last November, at ICMP headquarters in The Hague, by representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, who formally undertook to work together as the regional Missing Persons Group (MPG).

 

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ICMP is a treaty-based international organization with Headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands. Its mandate is to secure the cooperation of governments and others in locating missing persons from conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime, irregular migration and other causes and to assist them in doing so. It is the only international organization tasked exclusively to work on the issue of missing persons.[:bs]Hag, 17. januar 2020. godine: Vlasti Bosne i Hercegovine moraju u potpunosti provesti odredbe Zakona o nestalim osobama, istakli su ove sedmice predstavnici Savjetodavnog odbora Instituta za nestale osobe BiH (INO) tokom posjete sjedištu Međunarodne komisije za nestale osobe (ICMP) u Hagu u Nizozemskoj.

Puna provedba Zakona o nestalim osobama, koji je donesen 2004. godine, podrazumijeva uspostavljanje verifikovane Centralne evidencije nestalih osoba i osnivanje Fonda za potporu porodicama nestalih BiH. Predviđeno je da Fond pruža finansijsku potporu porodicama nestalih bez obzira na nacionalnu ili religijsku pripadnost srodnika nestale osobe i bez obzira na okolnosti nestanka.

“Želimo zajedno raditi za sve žrtve. Želimo da vladine institucije rade zajedno i preuzmu odgovornost”, rekao je Amir Kulaglić, član Savjetodavnog odbora INO-a. “Ostvarili smo odlične rezultate, ali još uvijek nismo pronašli sve nestale – porodice 7.000 nestalih osoba još uvijek čekaju odgovore.”

Gospodin Kulaglić i članovi Savjetodavnog odbora Jela Mandić i Fikret Bačić pozvali su vlasti BiH da osmisle strategiju provedbe Zakona o nestalim osobama. Ako ti koraci ne urode plodom, smatraju da je neophodno izvršiti izmjene i dopune zakona.

U okviru posjete članovi Savjetodavnog odbora su dobili informacije i o ICMP-ovoj trajnoj tehničkoj potpori koju pruža BiH, uključujući i identifikacije na temelju analize DNK. Savjetodavni odbor je informisan i o ICMP-ovoj pionirskoj primjeni Sekvenciranja sljedeće generacije (koje se naziva i Masivno paralelno sekvenciranje, MPS) koje može utvrditi podudarnost kod slučajeva koje nije bilo moguće riješiti postojećim metodama analize kratkih uzastopnih ponavljanja DNK. MPS omogućuje analizu degradiranih uzoraka i može pronaći podudarnost u slučajevima za koje nisu raspoloživi uzorci DNK bližih članova porodice. Zahvaljujući MPS-u, ICMP je došao do šest novih identifikacija za BiH.

“Ova nova tehnologija nam vraća nadu”, kaže gospodin Kulaglić.

ICMP je pomogao državama zapadnog Balkana da pronađu i identifikuju više od 70 procenata od 40.000 osoba nestalih u sukobima tokom 1990-ih. U BiH je ICMP pomogao vlastima da pronađu više od 75 procenata od oko 30.000 nestalih, uključujući i skoro 90 procenata od oko 8.000 nestalih u genocidu nakon pada Srebrenice 1995. godine. Više od polovine od 12.000 nestalih za kojima se traga u regiji su iz BiH.

Pored toga, ICMP je BiH pomogao u donošenju Zakona o nestalim osobama 2004. i u osnivanju Insituta za nestale osobe, koji je s radom počeo 2005. godine.

Kathryne Bomberger, generalna direktorica ICMP-a, pohvalila je napore koje Savjetoavni odbor ulaže u zaštitu prava svih porodica nestalih.

Posjeta je organizovana u okviru dvogodišnjeg projekta koji podržava Vlada Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva, a provodi ICMP, kako bi osigurali saradnju regionalnih vlada u procesu pronalaženja preostalih 12.000 osoba za kojima se još uvijek traga u regiji. Te zemlje su zvanično okupljene i rade u okviru regionalne Grupe za nestale osobe (GNO), nastavljajući proces koji je već omogućio pronalaženje i identifikaciju više od 70 procenata nestalih. Rad GNO-a podržava ICMP.

Šefovi vlada zemalja zapadnog Balkana su u junu 2018. godine, u Londonu, potpisali Zajedničku deklaraciju kojom su obnovili posvećenost saradnji na rješavanju pitanja nestalih osoba. Nakon potpisivanja zajedničke Deklaracije, prošle godine u novembru je uslijedilo potpisivanje Okvirnog plana u sjedištu ICMP-a u Hagu. Predstavnici Bosne i Hercegovine, Crne Gore, Hrvatske, Kosova i Srbije su potpisom ozvaničili zajednički rad u okviru regionalne Grupe za nestale osobe.

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ICMP je sporazumom utemeljena međunarodna organizacija sa sjedištem u Hagu u Nizozemskoj. Njegov mandat je osigurati saradnju vlada i drugih organa vlasti u pronalaženju i identifikaciji osoba nestalih usljed sukoba, zloupotreba ljudskih prava, nesreća, organiziranog kriminala, ilegalnih migracija i drugih razloga te pružiti im pomoć u tim poslovima. Jedina je međunarodna organizacija čiji je zadatak isključivo rad na pitanju nestalih osoba.[:]

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