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Bosnian Prosecution Seeks More Funds for Exhumations

13. February 2017.15:07
The prosecution has asked the Bosnian state presidency for more money to exhume war graves after only receiving 95,000 euros from the Council of Ministers for 2017. The Bosnian state prosecutor’s office told BIRN that 190,000 KM (95,000 euros) in funding had been approved by the Council of Ministers for exhumations in 2017, but more money has been requested from the state presidency.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

Some 7,000 people are still missing from the 1992-95 war; so far 22,500 victims have been found and identified.

Milan Mandic, the president of the Association of Families of Missing Persons of Sarajevo-Romanija Region, said he was dissatisfied with the speed of the search for missing persons of all ethnicities – Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs.

Lejla Cengic, the spokeswoman of the Institute for Missing Persons, said that a number of requests for exhumations are currently are on hold, but not because of the ethnicity of the victims.

“The priority in exhumations is not determined by the ethnicity of the victim. It can be delayed because of the inaccessibility of the terrain, mined areas or because of the need for additional checks,” Cengic said.

The longest-running exhumation that is still ongiong is at a pit in Radaca near Mostar, which is believed to contain bodies of Serbian victims.

Cengic said that huge funds have been spent on the Radaca search but so far little has been found.

“So far we have found only small bones and we do not have any DNA. Currently we have reached 71 metres in depth,” she said.

She also confirmed that the Institute has its own resources for the process of searching for the missing.

Džana Brkanić


This post is also available in: Bosnian