Charge d’ Affaires at the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Boris Iarochevitch today visited the Tuzla premises of the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) and the Institute for Missing Persons, where he was briefed on the process of finding and identifying missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ahead of his visit to Tuzla, Iarochevitch visited the ICMP headquarters and DNA laboratories in Sarajevo and met with ICMP Director Kathryne Bomberger. During this meeting Ms Bomberger expressed appreciation for  the  European Union’s support to the ICMP.

“The aim of my visit is to get to know the work of the ICMP and the Institute for Missing Persons. As you know, the European Commission supports the work of the ICMP and indeed it was good to see with my own eyes how the ICMP works. I am impressed by the work of the ICMP and the Missing Persons Institute. ICMP’s work has not only contributed to ensuring transparency and accountability in the search for the missing, but also guaranteeing that Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the Missing Persons Institute, searches for missing persons regardless of their origin. I would like to reiterate in this regard, that the process in this country is conducted in a non-discriminatory manner. For these reasons, the European Union is proud to support ICMP’s work”, Iarochevitch said after touring the laboratories, where several experts were in the process of identifying remains of missing persons.

Deputy-director of the ICMP’s Forensic Sciences Department Adnan Rizvić, and doctor of forensic medicine Rifat Kešetović, the project leader of the Podrinje Identification Project (PIP), introduced Iarochevitch to the process of searching, which has been employed for a number of years.

“Generally I think that such visits are very important. It is important that others also visit these projects, to become familiar with the process, to clear up any misunderstanding about how and in what way the whole process takes place. I can’t speak about the specific effects of these visits, but I think that everyone understands that the process can only improve the prospects of finding the missing,” Doctor Kešetović said.

Since 2004, the European Union has supported the work of the ICMP with total contributions of more than three million Euro, and an additional two million Euro is allocated to the ICMP under the 2010 Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance for Bosnia and Herzegovina.