THE DEAD AT THE MERCY OF POLITICS

Destiny of the Disappeared

AIM Banja Luka, 10 May, 1997

According to the records of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), 18,500 disappeared persons were registered on the war stricken area of former Yugoslavia. The official statistics of the administration of the entities say otherwise. Amir Masovic, President of the state commission for searching for the disappeared persons of the B&H Federation, claims that this figure exceds 27 thousand. His colleague from the Serb entity Jovo Rosic, President of the state commission for the disappeared and captured soldiers and civilians, says that "Republica Srpska is searching for 1969 disappeared soldiers and 3980 disappeared civilians". This list, according to Rosic's words, does not include citizens of Sarajevo and assumes that the complete list of the disappeared could in fact include between five and seven thousand persons.

By signing the Dayton accords, the warring parties agreed to free prisoners and enable exhumation of mass and individual graves. The obligation implies enabling access to such sites to the interested parties and full cooperation in procedures of exhumation and identification of the dead. However, this which is considered to be normal after the end of any war, turned out to be the most complicated problem in this space. Not long ago, Franko Sabadini, head of the ICRC Office in Bijeljina, said that out of the 18,500 applications for search for disappeared persons, only one thousand have been resolved so far. This datum speaks for itself about the nature of the war and the postwar policy of its protagonists.

Obstruction of the Dayton accords by the warring parties in the part which refers to the disappeared persons made Manfred Novak, UN special envoy for the disappeared, submit resignation to the post. In the explanation of his resignation, along with the lack of "cooperation of the warring parties", Novak lays responsibility at the door of the international community as well, which out of the six million dollars needed for the project of clarification of the destiny of the disappeared, allocated only five per cent of this sum. In the beginning, Novak had had good reason to believe in the succes of his mission especially when at the initiative of President Clinton, an international commission for the disappeared (Blue Ribbon) headed by former American negotiator Cyrus Vance was established last year. The results after a year, though, rightly disturbed and disappointed him.

What is the destiny of the disappeared and why even after a year and a half after signing of the peace agreement, hundreds thousand people still know nothing about the destiny of their dearest ones?

Persons consulted on this topic claim that the disappeared are mostly dead and buried in mass graves. Most of them were prisoners of war and civilians whose killing according to international regulations has all characteristics of a war crime. Local perpetrators of the killings and those who gave order are doing their best not to have the crimes clarified and this is what makes the exchange of the dead so complicated.

Mass graves are mostly on the territory of the other entity so that access to them is not possible to those who are interested in their disinterring. The Muslim party is quite organized in disinterring mass graves on its territory and, according to Masovic's words, so far work in 31 mass graves of the Muslims has been completed. The Serb party claims that there are 53 mass graves of the Serbs on the territory of the Federation. The biggest sites are Kazani and Bravnice near Jajce, Caprazlija between Grahovo and Livno, and the surroundings of Petrovac. In the association of the families of the disappeared they claim that the destiny of 4,500 Serb refugees has not been clarified yet. They were the ones who were in Sanski most at the time of the Muslim-Croat offensive, more precisely in the Sanakeram factory and other temporary reception sites. Military experts believe that most of the Serbs disappeared during the offensive against western Krajina and during the fall of Sipovo, Mrkonjic Grad, Petrovac and Drvar. Remains of soldiers and civilians were left scattered along roads and in forests, and many of them have not even been buried.

A certain number of disappeared soldiers and civilians are alive and are still in prisons of the opposing parties. A certain number of them have been registered, but some are concealed and have not been registered at all. In the association of the disappeared in Banja Luka, they claim that they have a list of 950 unregistered prisoners who have never been registered as disappeared. They provide authentic evidence about disappeared soldiers of the army of Republica Srpska who have been taken prisoner and are concealed in prisons of the Federation and the International Committee of the Red Cross is denied the possibility to establish contact and register them. Contrary to all rules of the international war law, these men have become hostages in political games. Their exchange is conditioned by exchange of persons killed in mass executions in Kozarac or Srebrenica.

Branko Panic, President of the Association of families of disappeared soldiers and civilians of RS, claims that there are prisoners in Croatia and in B&H Federation who have not been registered by the ICRC. "At a recent meeting of exchange commissions in Zagreb, Croatian representative Ivica Kostovic claimed that there were no concealed prisoners. I reacted to this allegation and proved that it was not true. After that Kostovic said that were no concealed prisons, but that he could not guarantee that there were no concealed prisoners", says Panic.

Families of the disappeared are persistently visiting the Association and asking about the destiny of their dearest ones. Nobody is prepared to listen to them. Last year, they stood for days in front of the seat of the President of the Republic and the Government of RS in Banja Luka, demanding that the destiny of the disappeared be resolved more efficiently. The promises given by those whom they had unwillingly addressed turned out to be empty. Persistent protests resulted in relieving Dragan Bulajic of the duty of the president of the state commission for exchange, because of numerous complaints about his work. In the middle of the month of March, the problem of disappeared persons was put on the agenda of the Government, and the President of RS, Biljana Plavsic was present at the session. Branko Panic was also present as the representative of the Association, and he made grave accusations against former president of the commission for the exchange once again, and presented the datum that not even four months after he had been relieved of duty (in December 1996) had he submitted the documentation and the capital assets of the commission. After that, Velibor Ostojic asked that Bulajic be brought and the takeover finally be carried out, which was experienced by the representatives of the Association as extremely cynical. However, the takeover has not taken place to this day. The new state commission still has neither the documentation, nor the equipment, nor the vehicle...

The last meeting of state commissions for the exchange of perisoners of war and disappeared persons of FR Yugoslavia, Croatia and Republica Srpska, held on 9 May in Stara Gradiska, showed like for who knows how many times before the cruel power of politics over the law and morality. The negotiators failed again to reach an agreement about anything else but a new meeting. The dead soldiers and civilians, but also the alive prisoners are still waiting for political mercy.

Branko Peric