Bosnia Publishes Database of 27,000 Wartime Missing Persons
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The Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday announced the publication of the new database containing the names of all the missing persons that have been verified so far.
“Up to now 27,085 missing persons reports have been verified,” Marko Jurisic, a member of the Missing Persons Institute’s board of directors, told a conference in Sarajevo.
“Around 25,500 mortal remains have been excavated, while the search for 7,206 more missing persons still continues in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Jurisic added.
He also pointed out that this year, a regional database of missing persons was created, containing the names of 11,765 people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.
“The database is active. It is updated on a daily basis and it should serve as a tool for resolving the fate of the missing persons in the region,” he said.
Amir Kulaglic, a member of the Missing Persons Institute’s advisory committee, told the conference that he was from Srebrenica and lost many relatives in the 1995 genocide.
“Successfully resolving of the fate of all missing persons, as well as bringing to justice those responsible for their disappearance, relocation and the hiding of the truth about their deaths, is an essential precondition for establishing permanent and stable peace, trust and reconciliation between citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the region as a whole,” Kulaglic said.
He argued that the lack of will among top politicians was the crucial problem in the search for the missing.
Other problems that have been impeding the search include the lack of reliable information about locations of graves, he added.
“Not all the members of our families who were killed, dismembered and skilfully hidden have found their final resting place,” he said.
