NUŽDIĆ: PROCESS OF SEARCHING FOR THE MISSING WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF CRIMES AGAINST SERBS HAD BEEN PROSECUTED

PETROVO, AUGUST 30 /SRNA/ - The director of the Republic Center for Research of War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons, Viktor Nuždić, emphasized that after 30 years, there is no progress in the search for Serbs went missing during the Defense Patriotic War, and pointed out that this process is closely linked to the prosecution of war crimes.

"We have been warning for years that judicial institutions at the level of BiH are not performing their duties properly or efficiently, and this is precisely why the BiH Missing Persons Institute has been so ineffective," Nuždić told reporters in Petrovo, where he attended the commemoration of the Day of the Fallen and Missing in the Defense Patriotic War.

Nuždić said that the search for missing persons must be returned to the jurisdiction of Republika Srpska’s institutions.

He believes that the process would have been much more successful if the judicial institutions at the BiH level had prosecuted crimes committed against Serbs.

"We see that even when cases are prosecuted, they are delayed. Indictments are brought after 30 years, and in that way, it becomes a vicious circle of passing responsibility from one institution to another at the BiH level," Nuždić said.

He added that time is not on the side of the search for missing persons, especially for the Serb population, and emphasized that this is particularly traumatic for families who still have no one to light candles for.

Nuždić concludes that speaking about the work of the BiH Missing Persons Institute is largely illusory, given that, together with the BiH Prosecutor’s Office and the BiH Court, there are always delays and the worst results in resolving, as he calls it, the Serb issue.

He expressed hope that in the coming period, at least some of the cases will be resolved, namely, those related to bodies held in memorial ossuaries in Republika Srpska.