Several identified victims were found in the same mass graves, and due to the impossibility of identification and lack of blood analysis of the families, some of the victims have been waiting for burial since 1999, when they were exhumed, said the head of the office of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina (INO BiH) and researcher Mujo Begic at a press conference.
”So far, we have found victims in 501 locations in the municipality of Prijedor. We found them in ten different municipalities throughout BiH, and we also found remains in three countries – in BiH, the Republic of Croatia, and Serbia. The story of the missing and the story of Prijedor is really a specific story,” Begic stated.
”In Sejkovaca, we have over 200 cases where there are remains from one bone to a complete whole body, and a smaller part has been partially identified and prepared for burial. However, due to the inability of the families to come, we are not able to bury them this year either. For one part of the remains, which is very important, we do not have enough blood, and I use this opportunity to tell those families who have not yet had the opportunity to donate blood and to continue the collection process so that we can give peace to all families,” Begic added.
This year’s funeral will be held on July 20th, and tomorrow the column with coffins will pass from Sanski Most to Prijedor through Kljuc Bosanski Petrovac, Bihac, Bosanska Krupa, Bosanska Otoka, and Bosanski Novi, where citizens will be able to pay their respects to the victims.
During the press conference, the organizers recalled that Prijedor is the municipality with the highest percentage of the violently expelled non-Serb population, explaining that 54.000 Bosniaks and Croats lived in Prijedor before and that this number dropped to 2.000 in 1996.
”When you see the percentage, it is completely clear what the scale of the crimes committed in Prijedor is,” Begic emphasized.
Mehmed Kudic, president of the Organizing Committee for commemorating July 20th, the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of War Crimes, said that this year a conceptual solution for a memorial center in Kamicani will be presented, as well as an exhibition of artifacts and objects found during exhumations from mass graves.
The exhibition entitled “Svjedocanstva” (Testimonies) will display over a hundred items found from the exhumed and identified victims – from their shoes, clothes, watches, and toothbrushes – to the rope with which their hands and feet were tied at the time of the murder. Kudic called for dignified commemoration and help in finding the victims, who are still being sought, but also for greater involvement of the judiciary in prosecuting criminals, Detektor writes.
E.Dz.
