Search for Missing Persons – a Regional Issue
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The Regional Coordination, which consists of 26 associations from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia and Croatia, held a meeting in the premises of the International Commission for the Missing Persons, ICMP in Sarajevo on July 22 this year in order to agree on future activities needed to solve the issue of searching for missing persons.
Ema Cekic of the Union of Bosniak Associations of Families of Detained and Missing Persons from Bosnia and Herzegovina points out that the Regional Coordination of Associations is trying to raise the search for the missing persons process to “a level the victims deserve”.
“We have come together in order to fulfill the process, because, even though 19 years have passed since our family members disappeared, we are still searching for their remains. The Regional Coordination serves the interest of all of us. It enables us to increase the pressure on authorities in the region so they do their part of the job in order to enable the families to access the remains of their dearest ones,” Cekic said.
According to estimates, about 40,000 persons disappeared in the former Yugoslavia during the war conflicts. About 26,000 persons have been found and identified to date. The Regional Coordination of Associations requested the governments in this region to continue investing coordinated efforts aimed at finding and identifying the remaining 14,000 missing persons.
Liljana Alvir of the Union of Associations of Families of Detained and Missing Croat Soldiers says that the governments in the region are responsible for finding the remaining missing persons.
“We consider that authorities in the region should improve the search for the missing persons bearing in mind aspects of the approach, which has not proven successful so far. We, the families, see a problem with so many unsolved cases,” Alvir said.
Klaudia Kuljuh, Coordinator with the ICMP Political Department, mentioned that the search for the missing persons would be even more difficult in the future due to the lack of information.
ICMP has supported the Regional Coordination of the Associations of Families of the Missing Persons from the former Yugoslavia, which was formally established in June 2011.
A.J.
