A roundtable on the topic “Achievements and priorities in the process of searching for missing persons” was held yesterday in Nevesinje in the organization of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The information on the work of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina was presented, as well as challenges and problems in the work, and family members of missing persons had the opportunity to make suggestions and request additional information.
The problem of incorrect classic identifications, which were carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina until 2000, before the arrival of DNA analysis, was especially highlighted.
“In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have 1,600 remains that are the mandate of the Institute and for which we have isolated DNA, but we do not have matches with the blood samples of the families of missing persons, and this is something that we must work on in the coming period at the highest level. We believe that a large number of these are errors in classic identifications, and here we appeal to associations to invite families to give blood samples in order to get out of this vicious circle,” said the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nikola Perišić.
Chairman of the Advisory Board, Ante Marić, pointed out that the passage of time is the biggest problem for families of missing persons.
At the end of the roundtable, several conclusions were adopted, among which is to do everything possible so that families who have identified their loved ones using the classic method are urged to give blood samples to help the identification process.
