Exhumation of Foča victims in Montenegro: Mother and daughter Klapuh preliminarily identified

(Patria) - The remains of two members of the Klapuh family from Foča, mother Ferida and her daughter Sena, have been preliminarily identified using DNA methods, after their remains were exhumed in June this year in Nikšić, based on operational information and an exhumation request sent to Montenegro by the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Hasan Klapuh, his wife Ferida, and daughter Sena were killed in July 1992 in Plužine while fleeing the horrors of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and were subsequently thrown from a bridge in that town.

Through operational work, the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which also has the Klapuh family on its missing persons registry, obtained information that their bodies might be buried at an unmarked location on Voja Deretića Street in Nikšić.

During the exhumation carried out on June 4 this year in Nikšić, the remains of three victims were exhumed. After DNA analysis conducted by the laboratory of the International Commission on Missing Persons in The Hague, it was determined that the remains of two victims belong to Sena and Ferida Klapuh. The remains of Hasan Klapuh were not found.

The remains of the mother and daughter Klapuh will be handed over to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will then proceed with organizing the final identification in cooperation with the BiH Prosecutor's Office, in order to return the remains to the family.

The search for Hasan Klapuh will continue in the Nikšić area, specifically at the micro-location of the old Muslim cemetery, which will be re-searched and where the exhumation zone will be expanded, in order to find the remains of the third member of the Klapuh family.