A collective funeral service and burial of the remains of Bosniak victims killed in 1992 will be held today at the Memorial Complex and Martyrs’ Cemetery “Veljaci” in Bratunac.
This year, one identified victim will find final peace, and the remains of several victims whose identification using DNA methods, due to the condition in which the bodies were found, will also be buried – the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced.
The remains of the only identified victim to be buried this year belong to Kajtaz (Šeće) Salkić, born in 1955 in Hranča. Salkić was 37 years old when he disappeared in the Bratunac area in December 1992. His remains were exhumed in 2025 at the Glogova site, after 33 years of searching.
This year, the remains of victims from burned houses will also be buried, where the scale of the crime and the damage to the bodies made classical identification methods impossible. By order of the Prosecutor’s Office, as NN (unidentified persons), the remains found in two different locations will be placed in two graves.
The remains exhumed in October 2004 at the Voljavica site, namely from the burned house of Jašar Omerović, will be placed in one grave. According to operational data from the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, at least six people were burned in this house. Due to the poor condition of the burnt fragments, identification using the DNA method was not possible.
The remains exhumed at the Suha site in 2002 will be placed in the other grave. They were found in the burned house of Osman Hodžić, where, according to operational data from the Institute, at least 18 people died. Although there were 18 victims, DNA profiles, or identities, were successfully isolated from the remains found for only four individuals.
The Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina is still searching for 449 victims from the Bratunac area. A total of 1,767 victims have been identified so far. Exhumations have been carried out at 418 locations, of which 32 were mass graves. In 15 mass graves, the remains of victims from 1992 were found, while in the remaining 17, victims killed during 1995 were found.
The Institute once again appeals to anyone with any information about the locations of the graves to share it, so that the remaining families, after more than three decades, can finally find peace.
