prijava
SARAJEVO, October 7 (FENA) -The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has allocated additional funds to an existing 89,000 USD grant to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) to support ICMP's assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the process of finding missing people from the 1990s conflict.
Head of ICMP’s Western Balkans Program Matthew Holliday expressed his appreciation to USAID for its support. He said that BiH authorities have identified almost 23.000 missing people so far whose disappearance was reported after the conflict ended, but stressed that about 7.000 families in this country still do not know the fate of their family members, the ICMP stated.
"The additional funding provided by USAID will allow ICMP to continue supporting the BiH authorities in search for missing persons," Holliday said.
USAID Mission Director for BiH Nancy J. Eslick said that ICMP's work is crucial.
"Addressing the issue of missing persons is essential in the fight for justice, such as rebelling lies or confronting monstrous crimes by persistent, unwavering and reliable enforcement of the rule of law," she said.
ICMP's program in BiH provides assistance in the areas of forensic anthropology and archeology, DNA analysis and DNA-based identification, and seeks to strengthen the domestic capacity of forensic medicine. ICMP is also assisting the authorities in addressing the issue of unidentified remains stored in morgues in BiH.
Over the past two decades, ensuring the cooperation of the relevant post-war authorities in the Western Balkans, ICMP has been providing regional efforts that have made it possible to locate and identify 28.000 out of 40.000 missing persons during the conflict - an unprecedented achievement globally, it was said in a statement.
In addition to USAID, financial assistance to ICMP is provided by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Sweden, aiming to support BiH authorities in addressing the issue of missing persons from the 1990s conflict.
(FENA) A. B.
