Belgrade hosts missing persons conference

Speaker Slavica Djukic Dejanovic has opened the 11th Regional Networking Conference on Missing Persons in Belgrade. She said that Serbia would do its utmost in the search for the 17,000 or so missing persons on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and create legal, judicial and material conditions to bring the process to an end as soon as possible. Belgrade hosts missing persons conference She said that the families of the missing had a right to know what had happened to their loved ones, because the problem of missing persons was one of the most difficult issues stemming from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. "We have sent a request to the judicial organs in the region to try those responsible for grave crimes, and I can assure you that all Serbia’s judicial bodies will do the same thing,” the speaker told the conference. At the same time Djukic Dejanovic called on the associations of families of missing persons to freely address parliament with their initiatives as parliament had an obligation to help them get to the truth. Bosnian and Croatia representatives are also participating in the work of the conference, and have spoken of the problems that they face in their countries, but also of the need for further cooperation in the region. According to figures from the International Missing Persons Commission, the number of missing persons, presumed dead, after the conflict was around 40,000 at the end of the war, and is now down to approximately 17,000. The number includes those who went missing after the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and after the crisis in Macedonia in 2001.

Belgrade hosts missing persons conference

She said that the families of the missing had a right to know what had happened to their loved ones, because the problem of missing persons was one of the most difficult issues stemming from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

"We have sent a request to the judicial organs in the region to try those responsible for grave crimes, and I can assure you that all Serbia’s judicial bodies will do the same thing,” the speaker told the conference.

At the same time Đukić Dejanović called on the associations of families of missing persons to freely address parliament with their initiatives as parliament had an obligation to help them get to the truth.

Bosnian and Croatia representatives are also participating in the work of the conference, and have spoken of the problems that they face in their countries, but also of the need for further cooperation in the region.

According to figures from the International Missing Persons Commission, the number of missing persons, presumed dead, after the conflict was around 40,000 at the end of the war, and is now down to approximately 17,000.

The number includes those who went missing after the conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and after the crisis in Macedonia in 2001.