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Common problems faced by family members of all ethnic groups across the former Yugoslavia will be highlighted at the Eighth Regional Networking Conference on Missing Persons Issues, organized by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), from Friday, 11 November, to Sunday, 13 November, 2005 in Novi Sad, Serbia and Monte Negro.
Some 40,000 persons are believed to have gone missing in the conflicts during the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia. Approximately 20,000 are still unaccounted for. Families of missing persons, regardless of their ethnic background, are facing uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones and many practical problems as a result of their status.
ICMP advocates on behalf of family members and works with associations of family members of the missing to develop networks and provide training that will strengthen them and help them advocate on their own behalf. ICMP has been organizing Regional Conferences on Missing Persons Issues…

After visiting the exhumation of a mass grave site in eastern Bosnia on Wednesday, International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) Commissioner Michael Portillo called on the Government of Bosnia-Herzegovina to strive for truth and justice for family members of the missing and for the country of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a whole.BiH Presidency member Sulejman Tihic, Michael Portillo, a former British Secretary of State for Defence, and British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft led a visit of 8 European Union Ambassadors and 11 senior diplomats in Bosnia-Herzegovina to the exhumation of a mass grave containing skeletal remains of some of the victims of the 1995 fall of Srebrenica. The three future directors of the country’s new State-level Missing Persons Institute (MPI), Milan Bogdanic, Marko Jurisic and Amor Masovic, also took part in today’s visit.

“If Bosnia-Herzegovina is to move beyond the hatreds that produced this type of atrocity,” said Mr. Portillo after visiting the…

Forty Prosecutors from all levels of government in Bosnia-Herzegovina visited the identification facilities of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Tuzla, eastern Bosnia, on Thursday.The prosecutors were shown details of the process of identification of mortal remains exhumed from individual and mass graves related to the 1992-95 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The State Court is now prosecuting war crimes and better understanding of the identification process, as well as the way secondary grave sites were created, is likely to aid their cases.

ICMP assists local authorities in excavation and exhumation of grave sites and in the identification of remains, using a combination of traditional forensic techniques coupled with cutting edge DNA technology. The introduction of DNA by the ICMP as the basis for finding the identity of remains on a mass scale has radically changed the prospects of identification of the missing. ICMP created a database of DNA profiles…

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and the Croatian Ministry of Family, Veteran’s Affairs, and Intergenerational Solidarity announced the first results of Joint Project on DNA-led Identifications. Based on these results, an additional 50 families will finally know the fate of their loved ones.Forty-five matches between blood samples collected by ICMP and bone samples analyzed in labs in Croatia were generated in Croatian labs. Five new matches were generated between bones analyzed by ICMP and blood collected by Croatian authorities, with another two matches regenerated under the project which had already been matched in ICMP labs.

“Today we see tremendous results. But rather than the culmination of the project, it is what we hope will be seen as the commencement of a new phase of increased joint success in providing answers to all families,” said Jeffrey Buenger, ICMP Director of Government Relations. “Both sides anticipate additional matches, meaning more…

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has, to date, submitted 326 DNA Match Reports to the Thai authorities, pursuant to ICMP’s work on identification of the tsunami victims as part of its humanitarian efforts.In May 2005, ICMP agreed with the Government of Thailand to assist in the identification of tsunami victims. ICMP analyzes bone samples in order to extract DNA profiles and compare them with DNA profiles from the reference samples collected by the Thai authorities and authorities of the countries whose citizens went missing in Thailand during the tsunami. A DNA match report indicating identity of a missing person is forwarded to the Thai authorities.

The Tsunami Victim Identification Tracking Chart, posted on ICMP’s web site, contains the number of bone samples received, DNA profiles obtained from bone samples, and the number of DNA match reports. Further, it contains a breakdown by country of origin of the missing…

The Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia-Herzegovina was officially launched this morning at a ceremony at the Government Joint Institutions Building in Sarajevo. Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Minister for Human Rights and Refugees, Mirsad Kebo, and Chief of Staff of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Kathryne Bomberger, signed the agreement that established the Council of Ministers as a co-founder of the Institute, along with the ICMP, thereby launching the Institute at the level of the State of Bosnia Herzegovina.Until today’s State-level launch of the Missing Persons Institute (MPI), which was originally created in 2000 by ICMP, responsibility for addressing the issue of the missing from the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) was divided between the country’s two highly autonomous entities.

“The implementation of the Missing Persons Institute marks a milestone in the history of both BiH and the International Commission on Missing Persons,” said Kathryne Bomberger in a speech at the signing ceremony….

Family members of persons missing from the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia will join voices with thousands of others across the world tomorrow to mark the International Day of the Disappeared.The problem of disappearances is a global concern, with cases in more than 30 countries around the world. August 30th is recognized as the International Day of the Disappeared, following the custom of marking the day that was started in the early 1980’s by a Latin American federation of associations of families of detained and missing persons. It has since been adopted as a day of commemoration for associations of families of missing persons by international human rights groups around the world.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina this year, the day will be marked by the launch of a new State-level organization, the Missing Persons Institute (MPI), which will search for the missing regardless of their nationality or ethnicity, taking over…

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) announces that the 30 August 2005 International Day of the Disappeared will be marked throughout the former Yugoslavia with a series of events. These events have been organized in each country by local partners of ICMP to raise public awareness of the missing persons issue and to demand speeding up the process of tracing for missing persons.Due to the thousands of cases of disappearance in the former Yugoslavia, the public is encouraged to join with associations of families of the missing around the world to commemorate this day. Media are invited to attend all events.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
Sunday, 28 August 2005, Nevesinje: 19:00, book promotion organized at the Dom Kultura by the Union of Associations of Families of Captured and Missing Persons of Republic of Srpska. For further information please contact Milijana Bojic at +387 65 998 804.

Monday, 29 August 29 2005, Nevesinje:…

Representatives of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and government officials met with family members of the missing in Sarajevo on Thursday to explain how the new State-level Missing Persons Institute will be organized. Along with ICMP, representatives from the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina and entity-level Government commissions on missing persons spoke with 45 representatives of associations of families of missing persons from across the country who attended the meeting.The Missing Persons Institute (MPI) will be officially launched next Tuesday as the State-level authority that will be responsible for addressing the missing persons issue across the whole of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The current Federation Commission for Tracing Missing Persons and the RS Office for Tracing Detained and Missing Persons will be merged into the MPI, which will take over the responsibilities, work, staff and budgets of the current entity bodies. The MPI will establish…

A multi-disciplinary team of researchers commissioned by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has detected geographic patterns associated with mass graves that will help find hidden graves in the future. ICMP presented the findings of its study this morning at the site of one of the known but as yet unexcavated mass graves in eastern Bosnia that was used in the study.By studying 16 different known mass graves sites in the area, the team of satellite imagery experts, geology experts and forensic archaeologists who visited Bosnia-Herzegovina in May found common characteristics that will help locate other grave sites.

The researchers, from the United States and the United Kingdom, found that mass graves in the area were characteristically in river valleys; in the corner of meadows or agricultural fields; within 100 meters of a road; on a low slope from the road to the site; and colonized by dense weeds…