Delegation of Azerbaijan's State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons Paid Tribute to Victims of Srebrenica Genocide

(Patria) - A delegation of Azerbaijan's State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons visited the Institute and paid tribute to the victims of the Srebrenica genocide. A delegation of the State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons of the Republic of Azerbaijan, led by Commission Secretary Gazanfar Ahmadov, after a meeting at the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, visited the Srebrenica Memorial Center in Potočari and laid flowers to pay tribute to the victims of the Srebrenica genocide.



In addition to Ahmadov, delegation members Zaur Ismayilov and Nijad Badalzada, as well as Emil Aghayev, First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Sarajevo, also paid tribute to the victims. They arrived in Srebrenica accompanied by Saliha Đuderija, a member of the Collegium of Directors of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After paying their respects, the delegation also visited the Memorial Center itself and then traveled to Tuzla, where they visited the Podrinje Identification Center. During the visit, Dragana Vučetić, a forensic anthropologist with the ICMP, presented the delegation with a detailed account of the history and procedures involved in the exhumation, identification, and subsequent reassociation of the remains of genocide victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The delegation of the State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons of the Republic of Azerbaijan stayed in our country for three days. The focus of the visit was on discussing modalities for closer cooperation between the Institute and the State Commission, considering that both countries are facing challenges in searching for missing persons due to wartime events.

A meeting was held at the Institute's premises on this occasion, where it was emphasized that the competent authorities in both countries are facing a shortage of information regarding the locations of mass graves and that the exchange of experiences and acquired knowledge in the process of searching for missing persons, exhumations, identifications, and the establishment of databases is of utmost importance. The delegation from Azerbaijan was presented in detail with the Institute's work to date.

- In Azerbaijan, we can learn a lot from the best practices and knowledge gained in your country and thus find the thousands of missing persons we are still searching for - said Ahmadov during the meeting, emphasizing his belief that cooperation between the two institutions is extremely significant because, unfortunately, more and more countries in the world are facing the issue of missing persons.

The Chairman of the Collegium of Directors, Nikola Perišić, stated that our country is ready to share its experiences and knowledge, as well as to learn from others, all with the aim of finding as many missing persons as possible.

- Two-thirds of the missing persons in our country have been found, but the fates of 7,608 people remain unknown to us. This does not give us the right to stop or give up. We will not give up; we will continue to search and cooperate with everyone we can help and from whom we can learn - said Perišić.

In addition to the chairman and members of the Collegium of Directors of the Institute for Missing Persons, the meeting at the Institute was attended by Collegium members Marko Jurišić and Saliha Đuderija, as well as the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to our country, Vilayet Guliyev, and First Secretary Emil Aghayev.