The War Veterans and Disabled Persons’ Protection Committee at the Republika Srpska National Assembly is of the opinion that the Missing Persons Institute of BiH and the International Commission for Missing Persons /ICMP/ do not act in the interest of missing persons from Srpska.
“The Committee has recommended to the Government of Republika Srpska to comment on the possible transfer of competences in tracing missing persons process to BiH level,” the president of the Committee, Nedeljko Glamocak, told SRNA.
He says that such position of the Committee or other competent bodies of Republika Srpska has been ignored since 2008 when the Law on Missing Persons in BiH was passed and the Missing Persons Institute of BiH was formed.
“Then the competence in the field of tracing missing persons, which belonged to the Republika Srpska Missing Persons Commission, was transferred to BiH level,” recalled Glamocak.
President of the Republika Srpska Organisation of Families of Captured and Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians, Nedeljko Mitrovic, who attended Committee’s session, told SRNA that the position of this organisation is that Srpska should not give a positive opinion on the Agreement on status and functions of ICMP.
“Our organisation is against giving a positive opinion to the ICMP, because this commission and the Missing Persons Institute of BiH are biased and only working in favour of missing persons of Bosniak ethnicity,” said Mitrovic.
He has stated that there is evidence that more than 4,000 missing persons of Bosniak ethnicity were recovered with the help of the ICMP, the ICTY and satellite images, but not a single missing person from Republika Srpska.
Mitrovic has said that Republika Srpska is still searching for 1,663 missing soldiers and civilians.
At today’s session in Banjaluka, the War Veterans and Disabled Persons Protection Committee at the Republika Srpska National Assembly has reviewed the opinion on proposed decision on ratification of the Agreement on status and functions of ICMP, which was signed on December 15, 2014 in Brussels.
The BiH Presidency passed a decision on BiH’s accession to the Agreement on status and functions of ICMP in the session held on January 28, 2016, and the Council of Ministers of BiH defined proposed decision on ratification of this agreement on April 6.
Source: Srna
