The head of the Program of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) Matthew Holliday, denied today in Banja Luka claims of the associations in Republika Srpska that there is discrimination in the process of searching for missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He pointed out that the analysis of the Central Missing Persons Registry shows there is no significant difference in the identification rate between the Federation of BiH (74.83 percent) and Republika Srpska (72.18 percent).
“These data show that there is no bias or discrimination in this process,” said Holliday.
It is believed that BiH has made very great achievements in the process of tracing and identifying missing persons, he said.
“Out of 31,500 people, who were registered as missing after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we have identified around 23,000 to date,” Holliday said in a statement to reporters in Banja Luka.
He explained that since 2001, 14,792 persons were identified based on DNA analysis, which in the process of identifying is used by the ICMP, and the remains of 8,192 persons have been identified on the basis of the classical methods of identification.
Holliday points out that the search is still ongoing for about 8,000 people, and that the Law on Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina has to be implemented.
On the other hand, the president of the Organization of Families of Captured Persons, Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Republika Srpska Nedeljko Mitrović still claims that there is discrimination in the process of searching for missing Serbs from the RS.
Mitrović again criticized the work of the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina and he demands that the process of searching for missing Serbs accelerates.
Representatives of the ICMP presented the results of the search for missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1996 today in Banja Luka.
(Source: Fena)
