RAJILIĆ: I DO NOT EXPECT ANYTHING FROM NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, APRIL 8 /SRNA/ – The head of the Association of Republika Srpska Women Victims of War, Božica Živković Rajilić, told SRNA that she does not expect the new Board of Directors of the BiH Missing Persons Institute to contribute to accelerating the clarification of the fate of missing Serbs.

"I expect nothing...The Missing Persons Institute will not work toward uncovering the truth about the suffering of Serbs. Each year they find the remains of one or two killed Serbs, while they find 20 to 30 of others," Rajilić said, commenting on the appointment of the new composition of the Board of Directors.

She believes that the biggest mistake was transferring the search for missing persons to the level of BiH.

"It was a voluntary agreement to transfer responsibilities from the entity level under the pretext that the search for missing persons would proceed faster. All of that was a lie, our authorities at the time naively took part in it," Rajilić said.

According to her, it can no longer be corrected because a voluntary agreement to terminate the work of the Institute would be required, which the FBiH would never accept.

"All these theories about returning the process of searching for missing persons to the entity level are populist and an attempt to justify Serb representatives who worked there but failed to achieve more in clarifying the fate of missing Serbs. It should also be noted that salaries at the BiH level are enormous, while the work results are nearly nonexistent," she emphasized.

Rajilić stressed she does not trust any institution dealing with this issue at the BiH level, because each of them works against Serb victims, trying to minimize their suffering or ignore it altogether.

"Even when we have evidence and witnesses, when cases go to the Court of BiH, members of Muslim and Croatian units are acquitted or given minimal sentences. There have even been trials where a judge justified the killing of Serb soldiers, as was the case with crimes against captured Serbs in Goražde," she said.

Nikola Perišić of the Serb constituent people, Šimun Novaković of the Croat constituent people, and Suad Hasanović of the Bosniak constituent people have been elected to the Board of Directors of the BiH Missing Persons Institute, SRNA has learned.

This is the sixth composition of the Board since 2005, when the Missing Persons Institute of BiH was established. Families of the missing from Republika Srpska have expressed numerous criticisms and complaints about its work, including toward those who joined the institution as Serb people representatives.

Republika Srpska is searching for 1,640 missing soldiers and civilians, while the remains of around 600 unidentified persons are kept in three memorial ossuaries. Republika Srpska officials have repeatedly warned that the process of searching for missing Serbs has stalled since the Institute became operational in 2008, and that the search would likely have been completed by now had it remained under the jurisdiction of entity-level commissions.