What can they teach you? Balkans with Ukraine? After the large-scale invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin nearly a year ago, large numbers of Forensic anthropologists and archaeologistspathologists, DNA collection specialists, criminologists and other specialists experienced in conflicts arising from the breakup Yugoslavia And post balkan wars They began or moved to work on projects related to hostilities in the Slavic country.
Since the Balkan wars took place in the 90s of the last century, there are multiple reasons for this and undoubtedly also related to geographical and chronological proximity. But it is also a fact that the difficulty in Ukraine is that Various investigations have been launched while the war is still going on. Their programs are proof of that. search and identification thought of these people missing. However, a mission that began with the legacy of the longlist lessons learned In conflicts as bloody as those in the Balkans.
The examples are very concrete and explain things. advices as experts do to Ukraine today, use DNA for identification According to Matthew Holliday, responsible for Ukraine and the Western Balkans, there is a systematic way of killing the dead, which is not always done in the Balkans and leads to false identification. International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). It is an organization funded mainly by voluntary contributions from governments, born to identify those who died and disappeared in the wars in the Balkans, worked in countries with violent conflicts such as Syria, Libya and Iraq, and today participates in various organizations. Ukrainian institutions such as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and various prosecutors’ offices responsible for these cases.
past mistakes
“Especially between 1999-2001, after the kosovo warHolliday says multiple forensic teams went there to help identify missing persons, but DNA testing was not used in the vast majority of cases. Instead, visual inspections were used on corpses or personal specimens. things. The biggest problem with this traditional form of identity is high risk of errorso some were buried in another person’s name, and some relatives continued to search without finding their loved ones.” srebrenicaWhere more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and children died.
However, “the use of DNA has now become widely prevalent in Ukraine, but what we still know is that it is in the first months, especially in areas that have been reclaimed from Ukraine. around kiyivMany bodies found were identified by visual identification of relatives.” By some estimates, there are more than 20,000 casualties in Ukraine today, a quarter of them civilians.
Evidence in criminal cases
The issue is particularly important, not only to give some relief to the families of the missing, but also to gain evidence in the face of possible events. criminal cases in international or Ukrainian courts. A task they are working on too experts war crimes European Union Mission in Ukrainewho have also participated in missions in Bosnia or Kosovo (a request to meet with these professionals on this issue was rejected by the European authorities).
Other professionals with experience in escalating conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s and later in the region UN systemFor example, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Women and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).