International Day of Missing Persons: Remembering those missing from the Yugoslav conflicts of the 1990s

Around the world, this Wednesday, August 30, on the International Day of Missing Persons, families of the missing will call for clarification of the fate of tens of thousands of people who disappear each year due to armed conflicts, natural disasters, crime, illegal migration, and other causes.

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) will join families, government officials, and other international organizations to highlight the issue of missing persons and call for the creation of effective strategies to tackle this problem.

The fact that over 70 percent of missing persons in the Western Balkans have been found, which is an incredible achievement, does not mean that thousands of other families are not still searching for their loved ones.

- On the International Day of Missing Persons, it is very important to remember that there are 12,000 families in the Western Balkans who still know nothing about the fate of their loved ones. It is simply impossible to pretend that society has returned to normal when so many citizens are still living in pain and injustice, said ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger.

Associations of families in the Western Balkans will organize various events to mark the Day of Missing Persons, namely in Tuzla, Prijedor, Ilijaš, Ozren, Bijeljina, Mostar, Brčko, and Sarajevo. Similar activities will also be held in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Priština.

 - When persons go missing, state authorities have a legal obligation under international and domestic laws to do everything they can to find the missing and support the survivors' right to truth, justice, and reparations. Authorities in the Western Balkans have begun to fulfill this duty towards their citizens, which is why such progress has been possible, stated Bomberger. 

Bomberger stated that the region is a world leader in finding and identifying missing persons through a law-based process that does not discriminate against anyone, and that "families of the missing around the world benefit from the difficult but valuable lessons learned in this region.".

Over 28,000 out of a total of 40,000 people who were reported missing at the end of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia have been found. This was achieved through a rule-of-law strategy that combines institutional and legislative initiatives, state-of-the-art forensics, and civil society participation. The ICMP is now applying this strategy in other parts of the world, including Iraq, Syria, and Colombia.