Ambassador of the United States of America in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Michael Murphy, after a working meeting with the members of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said that competent institutions must support the work of that institute.
The board of directors, led by the chairman Nikola Perišić, informed the ambassador about the activities of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the results achieved so far in the process of searching for missing persons, as well as the upcoming challenges in this complex process.
It was pointed out that almost 80 percent of the total number of missing persons have been found so far and that their remains have been identified and handed over to their families, but that 7,613 victims are still being searched for.
It was also stated that the biggest problem in the process of searching for the missing remains the lack of accurate information on the locations of the graves.
Perišić pointed out that the Institute must overcome these challenges with new projects such as the search of military archives, but also with the much-needed acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment such as drones, scanners, geo-radar, which could greatly facilitate the process of searching for the missing.
It is for this reason, he pointed out, that the support of the United States is of great importance for the Institute.
“We are also working on an innovative project, namely the training of cadaver dogs, which have already proven to be very successful in the search for remains. We are still in the phase of obtaining funds for this project, which would be extremely important for Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also for other countries facing the same challenges,” he stated.
Ambassador Murphy pointed out that the United States will strongly support the work of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that it will demand the same from all institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“It was an honor to meet with the directors of the Institute for Missing Persons and to learn about the process of the continuous search for 7,500 persons who are still listed as missing from the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The work of the institute is of vital importance in order to provide peace to families and pave the way to reconciliation. The Council of Ministers must provide the Institute with all the necessary resources so that it can continue its work,” said Murphy.
After the meeting, he and the Institute’s delegation visited the Global Training Center in Vogošća, where, in cooperation with the humanitarian organization Norwegian People’s Aid, they plan to implement a training project for cadaver dogs that will search for the remains of missing persons.
