The International Day of the Disappeared was marked in Sarajevo with the question “Where is?” in the organization of the Society of Red Cross BiH and 18 associations of families of missing persons who distributed more than 3,500 thousand black balloons with this question throughout BiH.
The head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Zeljko Filipovic, noted that the families of the missing people are searching for their loved ones for 20 years now, and unfortunately, many of them have not succeeded in that yet, and the process of finding them is getting more complicated over time.
“The Red Cross Committee made a five-year plan within which we provided all the possible resources with the aim to get some additional information. We also provide our support to institutions that are dealing with this issue, as well as family members,” he noted.
He appealed to all authorities in BiH to get involved in the process of searching for missing persons, because families have the right to know where are their family members.
“I would also like to ask individuals who know something to come forward and give information, because this is a humanitarian act for the families to mourn for their loved ones with dignity,” stated Filipovic.
The Chairman of the Collegium of Directors of the Missing Persons Institute Amor Masovic stated that they are still searching for 7.191 registered and verified missing persons who went missing in the period from April 30, 1992, to February 14, 1996, in the territory of BiH as well as neighbouring countries, including Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia and Kosovo.
Assistant Minister for Human Rights and Refugees of BiH Saliha Djuderija noted the importance of the tradition of memory of missing persons in BiH, because their families, although suffering, expect to find them.
She also noted the responsibility of relevant levels of authority that are dealing with this problem, such as prosecutors, police agencies and the Missing Persons Institute, which have identified around 70 % of the missing people so far.
(Source: klix.ba, Photo: FENA/Alma Pasic Delic)
