The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and HerzegovinaNews
A MEETING DEVOTED TO IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW ON MISSING PERSONS AND FREEDOM OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION ACT, ORGANIZED WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE U.S. EMBASSY IN BIH, WAS HELD IN BUGOJNO
05.01.2012. 14:58Three associations of missing persons from Bosnia, of different ethnicities, who cooperate and help each other in order to find those that went missing during the war, have, with the help of the U.S. Embassy in BiH, held their second joint meeting, to consider the optimal approach to the problem of missing persons and to include as many governmental and nongovernmental organizations and individuals in the process of finding the solution.
Josip Drežnjak, president of the Association of Croatian victims "Grabovica 93"; Kemal Pervan, president of "Istina- Kalinovik 92" and Milan Mandić, president of the Association of Families of Missing Persons Istočno Sarajevo, have jointly organized this meeting which was held at the premises of the Municipality of Bugojno.
The meeting was also attended by: representative of the U.S. Embassy in BiH, the Human Rights Ombudsman - Jasminka Džumhur, Assistant Minister for Human Rights at the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees - Saliha Đuderija, representative of the Institute for Missing Persons - Amor Mašović, the representative of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) - Amela Suljić and Zerina Zukić - representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The Prosecutor's Office was represented by the Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes - Slavica Terzić and Selma Hećimović from the Public Relations Department.
Meeting participants supported the idea of improvement in terms of space required and prosecutorial capacities of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH and have agreed that the BiH authorities (Parliament and the Council of Ministers) must ensure more efficient cooperation of police authorities investigating war crimes.
It was concluded that the institutions of BiH should designate an official representatives who will work with families of missing persons, as well as that they should provide support to associations of missing persons. The participants concluded that a period of 90 days is sufficient to set up a Working Group on enforced disappearances, which is something that these associations have written about in their report in November.
The plan is to hold these meetings regularly and periodically in different cities of BiH, and to continue this mutual cooperation.
The sponsor and organizer of these meetings was the U.S. Embassy in BiH.
This announcement does not prejudice the outcome of the criminal proceedings and does not violate the principle of the presumption of innocence. A person shall be considered innocent of a crime until guilt has been established by a final verdict (Article 3, paragraph 1 of the CPC BiH).
