ZAGREB, February 7, 2018 – Officials of Croatia and of the International Commission on Missing persons (ICMP), who held a meeting in the ICMP headquarters in The Hague on Tuesday, agreed on cooperation aimed at investing effort “to account for 1,945 people missing from the Republic of Croatia during 1991-1995” the ICMP stated in a press release.
“The relevant authorities of the Republic of Croatia have cooperated with ICMP for almost two decades and, with new forensic and database technology now available, we believe that we can build on the activities we have already conducted together,” Croatian War Veterans Affairs Ministry Assistant Minister Stjepan Sučić was quoted as saying during the delegation’s visit in The Hague.
“A major challenge is to ensure accurate information on missing persons and clandestine graves which is preconditioned by the necessary political support to the process of accounting for the missing and promotion of public awareness,” Sučić was quoted as saying.
The Croatian delegation and their hosts discussed the potential use of ICMP’s “Site Locator” application in Croatia.
ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger praised Croatia’s authorities “for their decision to participate in the Database of Active Missing-Persons Cases from the Armed Conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia initiated and coordinated by ICMP with support of the European Union.”
In January 2017, the Croatian ministry of war veterans affairs signed an agreement on Croatia’s participation in the project, under which data about active missing-persons cases provided by Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia, is accessible and searchable by all participating states.
The Database includes the missing person’s first name, father’s name, last name, date of birth, place of birth, date of disappearance, place of disappearance, municipality of disappearance, identification (if any), and the name of the responsible body in which the disappearance has been registered. It is available as an online application hosted on ICMP’s server under the most rigorous security standards.
“ICMP is providing data-processing that can be accessed by stakeholders in Croatia and neighboring countries,” Bomberger was quoted as saying.
“This makes it possible to collect and share information on individual missing persons in a secure system that eliminates duplication of records and facilitates access. We believe it can result in a substantial number of new identifications.”
