SARAJEVO, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Representatives of institutes for missing persons from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia and Serbia signed on Tuesday here a protocol on cooperation in the search for persons who are still missing after the 1992-1995 war in former Yugoslavia, Federal news agency reported.
Working rules and procedures for the implementation of the protocol on cooperation in search of missing persons were signed between the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institute for missing persons of BiH Nikola Perisic and President of the Commission for Missing Persons of Serbia Veljko Odalovic.
The protocol aims to establish an institutional framework through which procedures and exchanges of information are clearly defined, which will significantly speed up procedures for searching for missing persons.
After the protocol signing ceremony, Odalovic stressed good cooperation and exchange of information regarding missing persons with BiH's institutes.
Odalovic explained that 481 graves were found in Serbia during the war period.
"So far, we have been able to identify about 300 bodies, and 157 bodies were handed over to BiH," Odalovic said, adding that Serbia requires 97 of its missing citizens to be handed over, which will be regulated after the protocol is signed.
Odalovic added that Prosecutors' offices should pay special attention to finding information about the mass graves and to inform institutes immediately.
"We have opened lines which people can anonymously call and reveal information and help resolve this humanitarian issue," Odalovic said.
Following the first protocol signing, Perisic signed additional one with the assistant to the minister of War Veterans for the Missing Persons of Croatia Stjepan Sucic, saying that "that the whole process of finding and identifying missing persons is rising to a higher level."
"The rules and procedures will aid the procedure for determining the existence of mass graves, the process of joint exhumations, identification of remains, and their handover," Perisic said.
For his part, Sucic highlighted the problem of the absence of legal framework in cooperation between the Institutes for missing persons of the three sides.
He added that cooperation has to be institutionalized, for which it is of vast importance to have protocols on cooperation and rules of procedure signed.
He concluded by saying that he felt a responsibility to the family members of 1,892 missing persons in Croatia who have the right to know the truth.
After the war ended, there are still about 12,000 missing persons on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, to which BiH, Croatia, and Serbia belonged.
