BELGRADE, AUGUST 30 /SRNA/ – The Serb side in Croatia is still searching for 1,572 persons, including 1,127 civilians, 442 /28 percent/ of whom are women, the Documentation-Information Center “Veritas” said.
On the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, a press release from “Veritas” says that a majority of them went missing in the last year of the war, 796 /51 percent/, and points out that more than one-third of persons from the list are listed in the recent “Book of Missing Persons” for Croatia which was published by the International Committee of the Red Cross /ICRC/.
“Veritas” says that an “operational list” with 635 names of Serbs, whom their families are not searching for by way of the International or domestic Red Cross, was submitted to the Croatian side, which is why, according to ICRC's rules, they could not have been put on the official list of the missing, which have been published in “Books of Missing Persons” since 2005.
The press release says that Croatia has not officially voiced its opinion on the list.
“Veritas” says that the fate of more than 100 persons from the “operational list” has been resolved in the meantime – they were identified in a regular procedure or in a procedure organized by the families, and several dozen families filed requests and gave blood for DNA analysis, which gives additional credibility to the list.
“The International Commission on Missing Persons /ICMP/ recognized it and in addition to the Serbian Commission, associations of families of missing persons and ‘Veritas’, it also got involved in the search for families of missing persons from the ‘operational list’ so that ‘unrecognized, but real disappearances’ could become formally recognized by putting them on the official list of missing persons run by the ICRC, and for the living relatives to give blood for DNA identification of exhumed mortal remains, which is nowadays the exclusive method of identification,” says the press release.
“Veritas” says that a total of 1,633 Serbs from Croatia and the former Republic of the Serbian Krajina have been exhumed from joint, mass and individual graves in the past 20 years, including exhumations organized by the families, 1,251 of whom have been identified and 382 mortal remains are yet to be identified.
The press release says that “Veritas” currently has information about several dozen burial places with mortal remains of more than 150 persons in Croatia, who were buried as “unknown persons” and who, 26 years after the war, are still waiting to be exhumed, exclusively because of obstructions by the Croatian side.
“Veritas” says that families of missing persons have a right to find out the truth about the fate of their loved ones and that society has both a legal and moral obligation to help them in their search.
“This is possible only through active cooperation between families of missing persons and relevant organizations and institutions. The International Day of the Disappeared is an opportunity for the public to get reminded of the suffering and pain of families of the missing, but also a call to the families to meet their obligation – to file a request for the search and give blood for DNA analysis, without which there is no a successful search,” says the press release.
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