SARAJEVO, May 14 (Hina) - Five and a half years since the end of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, more than 17,000 families are still searching for their loved ones who are registered as missing, head of the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) missing persons' project department, Olivier Couteau, said in Sarajevo Monday. The largest number of registered missing persons is still connected to the Srebrenica tragedy, he recalled. After Serb troops occupied Srebrenica, at the time a zone under UN protection, in July 1995, more than 7,500 people went missing. The search process is difficult and slow. Only a little more than 100 such cases have been solved so far. The remains of almost 4,300 people are still waiting to be identified, Couteau said. Last May the ICRC issued its first book with photographs of remains of clothing and personal belongings found in exhumations of mass graves in eastern Bosnia. The g
SARAJEVO, May 14 (Hina) - Five and a half years since the end of the
war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, more than 17,000 families are still
searching for their loved ones who are registered as missing, head
of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) missing
persons' project department, Olivier Couteau, said in Sarajevo
Monday.
The largest number of registered missing persons is still connected
to the Srebrenica tragedy, he recalled.
After Serb troops occupied Srebrenica, at the time a zone under UN
protection, in July 1995, more than 7,500 people went missing. The
search process is difficult and slow.
Only a little more than 100 such cases have been solved so far. The
remains of almost 4,300 people are still waiting to be identified,
Couteau said.
Last May the ICRC issued its first book with photographs of remains
of clothing and personal belongings found in exhumations of mass
graves in eastern Bosnia.
The goal of the project was to engage the families of missing
persons in the identification process. The first book helped to
identify five exhumed bodies, and 71 cases are still being
processed.
Couteau assessed the results, although weak, are still
encouraging. The ICRC thus decided to issue a second book of
photographs, promoted in Sarajevo today.
Special ICRC teams will be visiting the families of missing
Srebrenica residents with the book of photographs.
One of the Drina River region area identification project heads,
Dzevad Bektasevic, recalled the ICRC has 5,505 missing persons
cases relating to Srebrenica.
International and home forensic scientists and pathologists have
exhumed numerous mass graves. The second book of photographs holds
the belongings of 473 remains found. The remains are of people who
tries to break through the forests towards Tuzla after the fall of
Srebrenica, or were killed after being captured in the former UN
headquarters in Potocari.
The identification process includes classic forensic methods, but
also DNA analyses, for which blood samples of 5,201 people have been
collected.
Despite the great efforts and money invested, only the identities
of 118 people found in the mass graves have been identified by all
the identification methods so far.
(hina) lml