BiH Missing Persons Institute receives specialized software for locating missing persons

(Patria) - As a significant step towards strengthening the process of locating and identifying missing persons in BiH, the EU Delegation and the Embassy of Sweden in BiH have donated necessary equipment to the BiH Institute for Missing Persons as part of ongoing support to the Institute and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

This donation reflects the EU's commitment to supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ICMP in their efforts to locate and investigate disappearances of persons during the 1990s conflicts in accordance with the rule of law.

Head of the EU Delegation and EU Special Representative in BiH, Ambassador Johann Sattler visited the Institute for Missing Persons today to officially hand over the Integrated Data Management System (iDMS), a state-of-the-art software solution developed by the ICMP in close cooperation with the BiH Institute for Missing Persons.

The ultimate goal was to adapt the iDMS to meet the specific needs of the Institute and the challenges it faces in maintaining the Central Registry of Missing Persons and ensuring the analysis of a large volume of personal and forensic data.

- This donation is just one part of our ongoing assistance to efforts aimed at locating missing persons, including support for the work of the ICMP and assistance to competent authorities in BiH in fulfilling their obligations towards the families of missing persons.

Families have the right to know the fate of their missing relatives and their whereabouts. This is not only our common moral obligation, but it will also contribute to strengthening the rule of law, peace, and stability in BiH.

Lasting peace and reconciliation cannot be achieved without a credible and effective effort to find missing persons and bring those responsible for their disappearance to justice - Sattler said.

The customized version of iDMS will enable the BiH Institute for Missing Persons to collect, store, share, and analyze data on missing persons and their families, as well as data on exhumations, forensic processing, and DNA analysis.

This unique software tool will facilitate the seamless exchange of data between the Institute's field offices.

- The modified and customized version of iDMS is a tool that will enable efficient exchange of data stored in the database between investigators in our regional and field offices and the Central Registry of Missing Persons.

I would like to emphasize the possibility of resolving around 1,600 unidentified cases from which a DNA profile has been isolated, but to date, we have not had a match with blood reference samples provided by the families of missing persons.

We believe that mistakes were made in many of these cases at the time when victims were identified by the classical method before the introduction of DNA analysis - stated the Chairman of the Collegium of Directors of the Institute for Missing Persons, Nikola Perišić.

The European Union has so far donated 16 million euros in assistance to the ICMP and BiH authorities to strengthen their capacities for locating and identifying missing persons in BiH.

In addition, with the aim of transferring the process to domestic authorities, the EU has equipped a DNA analysis laboratory at the state level and will finance specialized training for laboratory employees.

Furthermore, with the financial assistance of the EU, the ICMP has established a case management database to organize the processing of unidentified human remains in morgues across BiH.

The case management database, a pioneering initiative of the ICMP, serves as a central repository for all active unidentified cases.

It is populated with data carefully collected during a review of unidentified cases conducted in morgue facilities in BiH between 2013 and 2018.

The database not only consolidates this key information but also enables the implementation of recommendations outlined in the Report on the Review of Unidentified Cases, which is another key project funded by the European Union.

Deputy Head of the Western Balkans Program, Samira Krehić, emphasized the importance of this cooperation.

- In the past 25 years, with the help of the ICMP and its donors, authorities in BiH have successfully located an impressive 75 percent of the 30,000 people who were reported missing in the conflict.

This donation is a key step towards strengthening BiH's capacity to locate the remaining missing persons and underscores the shared commitment to resolving the issue of missing persons and creating a sense of closure and healing for affected families and communities in BiH - Krehić said.

These efforts are expected to significantly improve the efficiency of the BiH Institute for Missing Persons and the BiH Prosecutor's Office, leading to the resolution of a greater number of cases and consequently a reduction in the total number of missing persons cases in BiH.