15 July 2009: The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) expresses full support for the successful outcome of today’s meeting between Dr.Nikola Spiric, Chairman of Bosnia’s Council of Ministers, and the representatives of The Regional Coordination Board of Families of the Missing from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.Dr.Spiric committed to giving necessary support both to the implementation of the Law on Missing Persons, as well to the establishment of the Fund for Missing Persons. He also supports the organizing and financing of the 12th Regional Conference in Sarajevo, as well as expressing his willingness to assist financially in the marking of the 30th August 2010, the International Day of the Missing and Disappeared.

“ICMP is extremely pleased by the very positive outcome of this meeting,” said ICMP’s Director-General Ms.Kathryne Bomberger. “We express our full support both to the Regional Cooperation Board and to Dr.Spiric for the forward-looking and objective manner in which they approached the regional problems of missing persons.”

“It is also very encouraging to see that there is a clear understanding that the issue of missing persons should remain one of common concern, and not something that can be used to further political objectives,” she added.

Dr.Spiric met with The Union of Associations of Families of Missing Persons of Republika Srpska, The Women of Srebrenica Citizens Association, the Vrbanja Family Organization of Martyrs, Detained and Missing Persons, the Krajina and Croatia Family Association of Missing and Fallen Persons, and the Union of Family Associations of Detained and Missing Croat Defenders from Zagreb.

Some 40,000 persons were reported missing at the end of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, and through use of its DNA-assisted technology ICMP has succeeded in identifying 14,915 of them. The issue of missing persons remains one of the most pressing human rights issues currently facing the region.