CHIEF PROSECUTOR MEETS WITH HEAD OF ICMP’S WESTERN BALKANS PROGRAM

The central topics of the meeting were issues related to the search for the missing, as well as the processes of exhumations and identification of mortal remains.

Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH Gordana Tadić, together with Deputy Chief Prosecutor and Head of the Special Department for War Crimes Milanko Kajganić and associates met with the Head of Western Balkans Program at the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Matthew Holliday, and ICMP Senior Adviser for Cooperation with Governments, Nihad Branković.

The meeting discussed the activities that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the ICMP to BiH are implementing within the process of searching for the missing, exhumations, revision of ossuaries and mortal remains, as well as within the process of identifying the mortal remains of missing persons.

One of the topics of the meeting was strengthening the capacities of domestic institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina to conduct DNA testing for the purpose of identifying missing persons. The ICMP representatives briefed the Chief Prosecutor on the activities carried out by the ICMP with the support of the European Union and the international community, with the aim of developing the capacities of domestic laboratories for DNA analyses.

The ICMP representatives to BiH have been present and have participated in many exhumations and searches for missing persons, as well as in identification processes throughout BiH.

The mortal remains of more than 7,000 missing persons from the past war are still being searched for in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The activities carried out by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and partner domestic and international institutions and agencies are key to finding and successfully identifying the mortal remains and bringing peace to the families of the missing.