KARAN: SRPSKA MISSING PERSONS INSTITUTE WILL ACCELERATE SEARCHING FOR MISSING SERBS PROCESS

BANJA LUKA, APRIL 15 /SRNA/ – The Director of the Republika Srpska Forensic Medicine Institute, Željko Karan, believes that the establishment of the Republika Srpska Missing Persons Institute would contribute to accelerating the process of searching for missing Serbs and identifying human remains.

"The idea of establishing this institute was supported by Milorad Dodik while he was serving as Republika Srpska president. I am aware that work is being done on adopting a legal solution that will regulate this field," Karan told SRNA. He stated that the Institute is fully equipped technically, staffed, and professionally capable of taking on the project of establishing the Republika Srpska Missing Persons Institute, but that this field must first be regulated by law. "We have a DNA analysis laboratory that can meet these requirements. Last year, we acquired another genetic analyzer, for which the Institute lacked BAM 100,000, which was provided by Milorad Dodik from the Republika Srpska President budget," Karan emphasized. He added that the Institute is soon expecting the delivery of a cryogenic mill for freezing samples in liquid nitrogen, for which a public procurement procedure has been conducted. Karan stated that the Missing Persons Institute of BiH holds a monopoly over the process of searching for missing persons in BiH, but does not have the conditions to perform this work, instead sending bone samples to the International Commission on Missing Persons in The Hague for DNA analysis. "This international commission no longer has international donations and is no longer interested in the issue of missing persons in BiH and Republika Srpska. Their main problem now will be the exhumation and identification of human remains in Ukraine," Karan emphasized. Karan concluded that the Missing Persons Institute of BiH has for years obstructed efforts to locate missing persons of Serb background, causing a standstill in this process.