International Commission on Missing Persons

20 September 2004: With the official opening of the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial and Cemetery on Saturday September 20th, 2003, almost 1000 individuals who died during the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995 are now laid to rest. The numbers will increase as more missing persons are found and identified. That these persons now have the final dignity of a marked grave instead of an anonymous memorial is due to the hard work of many people and organizations. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), through its work with families, and governments, as well as by using traditional and new science, contributes to this work which recognizes the human rights of both the living and the dead.

President Bill Clinton, who is the prime guest of honour at the official opening, was the choice of both the Association of the Mothers of Srebrenica and of all the citizens of Srebrenica. It was…

4 August 2004: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has received another generous donation from the Government of Switzerland. The funds will be used to support ICMP’s DNA laboratory in Sarajevo and will significantly assist ICMP’s DNA – led identification process. A donation agreement was signed by H.E. Ambassador Urs Breiter for Switzerland and by Adam Boys, ICMP’s Director of Administration and Finance. As H.E. Ambassador noted ” it is essential that families of the missing are given answers to questions that they have waited so long to have”.

The Government of Switzerland is a valued supporter of ICMP’s programmes and activities. ICMP has received regular donations from the Swiss Government since year 2001. So far, the donations have been used to support the exhumation and identification process of Kosovo Albanians buried in Serbia as well as ICMP’s Civil Society Initiatives Programme and its “Short term Activities – Paths…

8 June 2004: The Federal Republic of Germany has generously donated 300,000 EUR to support ICMP’s DNA laboratory in Sarajevo. The donation will be used for the purchase of DNA reagents and chemicals and will significantly assist ICMP’s DNA – led identification process. The purpose is to increase the number of identifications of persons missing from the 1990’s conflicts in the regions of the former Yugoslavia. The agreement is to be signed by Mr. Achim Tröster, Chargé d´Affaires a.i. of the Federal Republic of Germany in Sarajevo, and Mr. Adam Boys, ICMP Principal Director, in ICMP headquarters in Sarajevo on 8th June 2004.
The armed conflicts in the territories of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990 have resulted in up to 40,000 missing persons. Although thousands of mortal remains have been exhumed from mass graves since the cessation of these conflicts, most of them have not been identified. ICMP esti-mates…

14 January 2004: Ambassador Michael Humphreys, Head of the European Commission Delegation to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Mr. Gordon Bacon, Chief of Staff of the International Commission on Missing Persons signed an agreement for a contribution of 900,000 Euro from the European Union to ICMP. This donation is to support ICMP’s on-going blood collection programme and to start a new blood collection programme for family members living in European countries. Also included is a publicity campaign throughout the Former Yugoslavia as well as the European Union countries where family members with missing relatives are now living.Collecting blood samples from family members of missing persons, cataloguing blood samples, entering DNA profiles into the Family Reference Database is vital in the identification process of the missing persons in the region.

Long lasting uncertainty regarding the fate of missing persons is a continuing source of anguish for their families and is a real…

19 December 2003: The first Working Group meeting to draft the Protocol for the Missing Persons Institute (MPI) took place yesterday in Sarajevo at the Joint Institutions Building. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) welcomes this important beginning towards implementation of the MPI on the level of the State.The objective of the MPI is to provide BiH with a long-lasting mechanism to address the issue of persons missing from the conflicts in BiH, regardless of their ethnic, religious or national origin.

The MPI was originally founded by ICMP in August 2000. On 4th June 2003, the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) members of the Presidency agreed unanimously on a decision for BiH to become a co-founder of the MPI, along with ICMP and asked for the Council of Ministers to establish a Working Group to draft the Protocol.

Currently the process of recovery and identification of mortal remains from the conflicts…

26 November 2003: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding in Pristina on Wednesday, 26 November 2003. Representatives of family associations of missing persons from the conflict, as well high-level Kosovo government officials, including President Ibrahim Rugova and Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi, and members of the Coordination Center for Kosovo, are expected to attend the ceremony. Deputy SRSG, Jean Christian Cady, will sign on behalf of UNMIK and Gordon Bacon, Chief of Staff will sign for ICMP.In an effort to help Kosovo with its missing persons issue, ICMP began its operations in Kosovo in June 1999 and completed an agreement with the Coordination Center for Kosovo (CCK) in October 2001. The new MoU will reinforce procedures between ICMP and UNMIKregarding a DNA- led identification process, with the aim of better assisting families in their search…

24 November 2003: Gordon Bacon, the Chief of Staff of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) made a review of progress in the country towards the determination of the fate and whereabouts of all persons searched for as a result of the 2001 crisis. Mr. Bacon noted that despite assurances made by the Government, minimal visible progress has been made to date.Notably absent is any implementation of an ICMP initiative presented to the Government a year ago to establish a national process to determine the fate and whereabouts of the 20 plus missing persons. ICMP’s initiative provides for the creation of a neutral and independent coordination body that would report directly to the Prime Minister and that would include persons representing both major ethnic communities in FYROM/Macedonia.

In June the Parliament approved the creation of a Government/Parliamentary Commission, however, this commission was never implemented. In line with ICMP’s initial…

16 November 2003: Today marks the second anniversary of the first DNA- assisted identification in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was made on 16th November 2001 by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). ICMP is the first organization to successfully apply a population-based, DNA-led identification process in a post-conflict environment. The use of DNA assisted identifications not only increases the speed and accuracy of identifications, but also allows identifications to be made for post-conflict cases where this may not have otherwise been possible.

It is estimated that following the conflicts in the regions of former Yugoslavia, a total of approximately 40,000 persons were missing, 30,000 of them as a consequence of the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and that of that number approximately 8,000 were men and boys missing from the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. Since 1996, numerous mass graves have been discovered and exhumed in BiH,…

1 October 2003: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) announces today that it has made its 5,000th DNA report since making the first in-country match almost two years ago in Tuzla on 16th November 2001. Also, during September new daily, weekly and monthly records were achieved when 42 reports were made in one day, 134 in one week and 445 during the whole month.In just over three years ICMP teams across the region have collected 50,000 blood samples from the relatives of missing persons. Through collecting these samples ICMP now has the names of over 22,300 missing individuals. However, with a case load of 40,000 missing persons across the region, ICMP needs to collect approximately 100,000 blood samples.

Gordon Bacon, ICMP’s Chief of Staff said: ” There is still a long way to go, but hopefully when family members who have not yet given blood samples hear of these…

30 September 2003: The Embassy of the Netherlands and the International Commission on Missing Persons jointly organised a visit to the ongoing exhumation at Seljani near Rogatica.

In addition to the Netherlands, group included ambassadors and other diplomatic staff from the embassies of Austria, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, France, Greece, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States of America. At the site they were given presentations by Kathryne Bomberger, ICMP Chief of Staff and Dr. Mark Skinner, ICMP Director of Forensic Sciences as well as Amor Masovic, co-chairman of the Federation Commission, the Commission member, Sejo Koso and the Cantonal Prosecutor who is in charge of the exhumation.The site the diplomats visited may contain the remains of as many as 22 missing persons and dates from July 1992. Over the next few weeks, the remains will be taken to ICMP facilities, where an anthropological examination will be…