11 July 2003: ICMP announced today, the 8th Anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre that, the 1,000th Srebrenica missing person has been identified. An additional 676 cases have found a DNA match with the family blood samples and are currently waiting to be confirmed and certified as closed cases. The number of both DNA matches and closed cases is increasing daily as a result of additional DNA profiles being obtained from both recovered bodies as well as family blood samples.Gordon Bacon, Chief of Staff of ICMP, welcomed this achievement: ” This is an important milestone for ICMP in helping families who lost their loved ones during the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995 but there is still a long way to go. Everyone involved in the process must continue the work of finding remains and giving back names to the thousands of persons still missing. All of us at ICMP are dedicated to this work, and we will carry on until not only those from Srebrenica but from wherever they lived throughout the region, are found, identified and returned to their families. We will assist the families in their fight for information as well as encouraging more family members to provide the blood samples which are necessary to the identification process.”

ICMP has collected more than 14,300 blood samples from families whose loved ones disappeared from Srebrenica in 1995, which represents 7,696 named missing persons. The blood collection effort continues with the ultimate goal of obtaining as many blood samples as possible from families missing a loved one. Many such families may no longer be in the region, and ICMP is mounting a campaign to contact them throughout the European Union and in other parts of the world, to explain how they can take part in the identification program.