Bosnia-Herzegovina: Srebrenica victims - Photo book campaign leadsto encouraging results

It has been nearly three months since the ICRC published its second " Book of Belongings " containing photographs of possessions found with the mortal remains of people who went missing during the fall of Srebrenica.

The " photo book " , as it is known, comprises 2,702 pictures of clothes, shoes, jewellery and other personal effects found with 473 exhumed bodies. It was published last May as part of the ICRC's efforts to elucidate the fate of more than 7,500 people, mostly men and boys, who disappeared when the town was overrun in July 1995. At the same time, a campaign was launched in which the book was presented to relatives of missing persons by specially trained teams comprising personnel from the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina and representatives from the associations of families of missing persons. In all, 2,522 people who were searching for 4,488 missing persons consulted the book, and items found with 67 bodies were tentatively recognized. Forensic experts from the Podrinje Identification Project in Tuzla, which is part of the Missing Persons Institute, are now engaged in the arduous task of identification.

Since it is very distressing for the families of missing persons to look for clues to the fate of their loved ones, the teams who showed the book to the relatives provided counselling and support. " When they consult the book they often talk about the difficulties they are facing in their everyday lives, " said Sahar Hasan Staehelin, ICRC psycho-social delegate in Sarajevo, who trained the teams.

 Copies of the book will remain permanently available for consultation in 18 local Red Cross offices and in the ICRC offices in Tuzla, Zenica and Sarajev o. A similar ICRC photo book relating to persons who went missing in the Republika Srpska is currently being produced in Banja Luka.

The efforts made to identify the mortal remains exhumed so far are of great importance to the relatives of people who have remained unaccounted for since the end of the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, they do not dispense with the need for the relevant government authorities to fulfil their responsibility under the Dayton Peace Agreement to provide the ICRC's tracing services with information on missing persons so that it can be forwarded to the families.