Bosnia-Herzegovina: ICRC signs agreement on identification of remains

The ICRC was one of those who signed a memorandum of understanding on 10 July to facilitate identification of the mortal remains of people from the Republika Srpska who went missing during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The agreement is in line with efforts being made by the organization throughout Bosnia to support families in the long and painful search to find out what has happened to missing loved ones. A total of 17,440 individuals remain unaccounted for in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The project to be set up under the agreement will involve publishing a series of “Books of Belongings”: albums containing photographs of personal possessions and clothes found with some 750 exhumed bodies currently being stored in Banja Luka, Lukavica and Nevesinje.

Apart from the ICRC itself, the memorandum was signed by the Republika Srpska’s Commission for Tracing Missing and Detained Persons, Dr Zeljko Karan (the official pathologist appointed by the Republika Srpska’s Ministry of Justice), the Republika Srpska Red Cross, and the Republika Srpska’s association of the families of detained soldiers and missing civilians.

The books will be prepared by Dr Karan using computer equipment provided by the ICRC. The first are expected to be published in October 2001.

At the signing ceremony, the ICRC donated a four-wheel-drive vehicle to the Commission for Tracing Missing and Detained Persons to facilitate its difficult but indispensable day-to-day exhumation work. This donation is an example of the ICRC’s material support for those with the task of exhuming and identifying remains in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The ICRC fully endors es the authorities'efforts to speed up the exhumation and identification process. It has nevertheless reminded them of their obligation under the Dayton Peace Agreement to provide information on missing persons to the ICRC’s tracing services for forwarding to the families.