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42(3):271-275,2001
FORENSIC SCIENCES
Mass Identification of Persons Missing from the Break-up of the
Former Yugoslavia:Structure, Function, and Role of the
International Commission on Missing Persons
Edwin Huffine, John Crews, Brenda Kennedy, Kathryn Bomberger,
Asta Zinbo
The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP),
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The staff of the International Commission on Missing Persons
(ICMP) is attempting to undertake the largest mass hu-man
identification effort in history. Through the generosity of
numerous governmental and private corporations theICMP has
established or is currently establishing a strong network of
political allies, family outreach centers, and DNAlaboratories
throughout the former Yugoslavia. Furthermore, the ICMP is
currently working to streamline current tech-nology as well as
employ new technology in its efforts to assist in identifying
missing individuals. ICMP will continue toact as a link between the
family associations in the region and will synchronize the work of
the DNA identification pro-cess in the countries affected by the
war in the regions of the former Yugoslavia. In the longer term,
ICMP seeks to con-tribute to the closure of the missing persons
issue, to raise awareness of the human dimension of the missing
personstragedy, and to preserve a shared and common memory of the
missing in the former Yugoslavia.
Key words: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; DNA; foreign aid;
international cooperation; Kosovo; missions, official medi-cal;
war; war crimes; Yugoslavia
There are more than 30,000 persons missing inthe former
Yugoslavia as a result of the conflicts dur-ing the past decade
(1-7). Following the DaytonAgreement, signed in December of 1995
(7), the diffi-cult process of recovering the mortal remains of
thoseunaccounted for began in earnest. The InternationalCommission
on Missing Persons (ICMP) was created in1996 at the G-7 Summit, in
Lyon, France, with the ex-clusive focus of assisting the tens of
thousands of fam-ilies, regardless of their ethnic or religious
origin, indetermining the fate of loved ones lost during thewars.
It is the first such structure of its kind to be effec-tively
created in a post-conflict situation.
Perhaps the most exciting and certainly the mostpioneering
aspect of ICMPs work is the use of DNAtechnology for the
humanitarian purpose of identify-ing victims of the conflicts in
the regions. To para-phrase a writer for the Herald Tribune (July
7, 2000)who wrote an article about the ICMP last year, whilemankind
has been able to map the human genome,the ICMP is using DNA
technology to map a humangenocide. This paper will provide an
overview ofICMPs programs with a particular emphasis on theDNA
Program.
The long-lasting uncertainty regarding the fate ofpersons
missing is a continuing source of anguish forthe families and an
obstacle to rebuilding society inthe former Yugoslavia. Recognizing
that the removal
of that barrier would require structures more perma-nent than
ICMP could provide, a decision was madeto create a network of
forensic centers and DNA labo-ratories that would remain functional
after the ICMPceases official operations. These centers
complimentother ICMP projects across the region.
These networks of centers and laboratories aredesigned to
fulfill several important goals. Amongthese are the following: to
increase the number ofidentifications, to develop a uniform
approach toidentification, and to set up a sustainable,
long-termstructure that is capable of continuing the
identifica-tion process once the ICMP ceases official
operations.The ICMP activities are divided into the following
ma-jor areas: Political, Forensics Program, Family Associ-ation
Development, and the DNA Program.
Objectives of the International Commissionon Missing Persons in
the States that Emergedfrom Former Yugoslavia
Political Objectives
The political objectives of the institute are to in-tensify
government efforts to release information onthe whereabouts of
missing persons and to smooththe path for the implementation of
ICMP programs. Inaddition, part of the mission of the ICMP is to
ensurethat the local actors assume increasing responsibility
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for operational and governance functions within theICMP. Through
the auspices of the ICMP, and for thebenefit of the former
Yugoslavia, international politi-cal issues relevant to the missing
persons are beingpursued. These issues include ensuring uniform
prac-tices are followed in the exhumation process regard-less of
geographic location; and the establishment ofcenters, which are
responsible for maintaining con-tacts with the families as well as
keep the familiesup-to-date with regards to the exhumation and
identi-fication process; and installation and enhancement ofDNA
laboratories within the former Yugoslavia thatwill be part of the
technical backbone for the identifi-cation process.
Forensics Program
The process of recovering and identifying mortalremains has
proven to be the most effective methodof resolving the fate of
missing persons in the formerYugoslavia. For the past three and a
half years, theICMP has provided financial support for the
recoveryand identification operations in Bosnia and Herzego-vina
(BH), as well as supplies and equipment requiredby local expert
teams. ICMP has also engaged interna-tional organizations to
provide forensic expertise to as-sist these teams (ie, Physicians
for Human Rights andKenyon International Emergency Services).
ICMPs forensic program was formally estab-lished in the year
2000. Since that time, ICMP has as-sumed direct management of its
recovery and identifi-cation projects throughout the region. On
January 1,2001, the Office of the High Representative trans-ferred
responsibility for coordination of the inter-en-tity exhumation
process in BH to the ICMP. Managedby the forensic program, this
process entails close co-operation between the missing persons
commissionsof the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
theRepublika Srpska, as well as various internationalagencies
involved in the exhumation process.
In 1999, ICMP expanded its forensic program toinclude Kosovo.
ICMP played a key role in UnitedNations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIKs)
Victim Recov-ery and Identification Commission, and
providedstart-up funding for this commission. It has also
sup-ported the collection of antemortem data and bloodsamples for
DNA analysis and the establishment of acentralized antemortem
database for Kosovo. Morethan 2,000 antemortem records were
completed bytwo nongovernmental organizations (NGO) workingunder
contract with ICMP, and approximately 2,400blood samples
collected.
In order to meet the demands of recovery andidentification
efforts, ICMPs forensic program pro-vides support for the expansion
of forensic capacitywithin the region. Funds have been dedicated to
theconstruction or renovation of facilities for the storageand
examination of mortal remains. The PodrinjeIdentification Project
facility in Tuzla, for example,was built by ICMP to house the
remains of victimsfrom the area of Srebrenica. There are currently
4,420bags of human remains stored in the Podrinje Identifi-cation
Project facility; to date examinations of morethan 1,700 bodies
have been completed (includingcollection of DNA samples).
The forensic program has also encouraged thedevelopment and
implementation of standard operat-ing procedures for recovery and
identification opera-tions. Thus ICMP has purchased the software
site li-cense that would allow use of Interpols Disaster Vic-tim
Identification forms and the associated databasethroughout the
countries of the former Yugoslavia.ICMP has provided a copy of this
database to theUNMIK Police Missing Persons Unit in Kosovo, andwill
provide copies to additional centers as required.Training and
equipment will be provided for selectcenters where this database
may prove useful.
Family Association Development
The objective of the Family Association Devel-opment Program is
to work with associations of miss-ing persons to help them raise
awareness on the issueand to increase the association members civic
initia-tive and advocacy capacity to address missing per-sons
issues. Programs with the family associations in-clude (a) regional
conferences and coordinationmeetings in order to develop
cooperation and organi-zational linkages among associations of
families ofmissing persons from Croatia, BH and Serbia-Monte-negro
(including Kosovo) in order to recognize mu-tual goals and develop
joint activities; (b) projectgrants and short-term material
assistance to family as-sociations of the missing to strengthen
their opera-tional capabilities to lobby decision makers,
informtheir members, and educate the public on the missingpersons
issue; and (c) training workshops to build theorganizational
capacity of associations, so that theycan work and communicate more
effectively.
DNA Program
The DNA program is a pioneering component ofthe ICMP that will
use various DNA testing methodsto accelerate the identification
process. By combiningseveral recent advances in DNA technology and
auto-mation, it is possible to significantly decrease boththe cost
and the processing time of forensic DNA test-ing.
Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of the most basic,and, in BH, still
unknown factors involved in design-ing an identification program,
is the number of miss-ing persons. The International Committee of
the RedCross (ICRC) compiled a list of the missing in BH,based upon
the submission of tracing requests byfamily members. The guidelines
required for a sub-mission of a tracing request stipulate that the
individ-ual submitting the request must be a close family rela-tive
of the missing. If the entire family were missing,there may not be
any close relative left to submit sucha request. In addition, if
the family knows the locationof their deceased loved one, they may
not submit atracing request. At the current time, the ICRC list
ofthe missing in BH has a total of approximately 20,500individuals.
In BH, more than 10,000 bodies havebeen recovered since 1996 and,
of these, slightlymore than half have been identified via
non-DNAtechniques. Although statistics are not readily avail-able,
thousands of bodies were also recovered priorto 1998, many of which
require DNA testing for iden-tification. All together, since 1995
there have been
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roughly 5,0006,000 bodies recovered in BH thatwill require DNA
testing for identification. Of thebodies that have been identified
to date in BH,around 30% of these individuals are on the ICRC
listof the missing. However, this probably does notmean that the
ICRC list of the missing is short byaround 70%. This appears to be
unlikely. In reality,the losses in BH can be considered to be a
series ofmultiple loss incidents, instead of one massive loss
oflife incident. For example, the fall of Srebrenica inJuly of 1995
witnessed the disappearance of between7,00010,000 individuals. The
ICRC initiated an in-tensive effort to collect tracing requests
relating to thisincident. Subsequent initiatives indicate that
theICRC list of the missing from the 1995 fall ofSrebrenica
contains between 9095% of the actualnumber of individuals lost.
Other loss incidents, espe-cially those that occurred in 19911992,
seem tohold a much lower correlation between the ICRC listof the
missing and the actual number of missing.Based upon current
research by the ICMP, it appearsas though the number of missing in
BH is more than30,000.
In order to develop an in country DNA testing ca-pability that
will have the potential of testing tens ofthousands of skeletal
elements and associated bloodreferences, the ICMP DNA Program will
incorporatethe following: (a) a network of Family Outreach Cen-ters
to collect blood references from living familymembers; (b) DNA
laboratories to extract and testDNA from bone and blood specimens;
and (c) trainingfor local scientists in state-of-the art DNA
identificationtechnology.
Family Outreach Centers. The family outreachcenters are located
in regions that have large numbersof families who are missing loved
ones, which per-mits staff members to more easily locate such
familymembers. The family outreach centers take informa-tion and
blood samples from living relatives regard-less of ethnic or
religious affiliation. Currently, theICMP has operational family
outreach centers inTuzla (the Headquarters of the family outreach
cen-ters), and branch centers in Sarajevo, Banja Luka andSanski
Most. A fifth and final family outreach centerin BH is scheduled to
be opened during the spring inMostar.
Blood samples are collected via a small prick to afinger and the
blood sample is placed upon aSchleicher & Schuells (Dassel,
Germany) bloodstaincard. All blood samples collected at these
family out-reach centers are sent to the Tuzla headquarters
forinitial computer entry and sample storage. At theTuzla family
outreach center, each blood sample, andaccompanying paperwork, is
bar coded. In order toobtain a DNA profile, a small punch from the
blood-stain is sent to a DNA laboratory. The bar code is theonly
identifying information accompanying thebloodstain. By performing
this blinding of the spec-imen, it is not possible for anyone to
effectively claimdiscrimination based upon the ethnicity of the
donor.Only at the Tuzla headquarters will the resultingDNA profile
and donor name be matched. Caseworkers the individuals who collect
the blood sam-
ples from all three ethnic groups work side by sidein the Tuzla
headquarters, which has a staff of 22 per-sonnel. Once the Mostar
facility is operational, therewill be approximately 40 family
outreach centers em-ployees in BH.
The blood collection efforts of the family out-reach centers in
BH began in June of 2000 with theopening of the Tuzla headquarters.
With four of theplanned five centers open by the end of December
of2000, blood collection efforts were underwaythroughout BH. By the
end of March of 2001, thesefour centers were collecting an average
of 70-90blood samples per working day. The family outreachcenters
work closely with the organizations of fami-lies who are missing
loved ones to collect informationabout the missing person as well
as contact informa-tion for potential blood donors for these
missing indi-viduals. By the end of March 2001, the family
out-reach centers had collected contact information forover 75,000
potential donors, which represents ap-proximately 18,500 of the
missing. A folder is pro-duced for each of the missing, containing
the contactinformation for potential donors. Each potential do-nor
is listed as either a mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)or nuclear DNA
donor, or both. Blood samples forthat missing person are collected
until a mtDNA do-nor has been sampled, as well as a sufficient
numberof nuclear DNA donors to achieve a complete nu-clear DNA
donor case. The definition of a completenuclear DNA case for a
missing person is dependentupon the availability and relatedness of
potential nu-clear DNA donors. For example, in some cases
bothparents are still alive. In other cases, one or both ofthe
parents may be deceased, but a spouse and chil-dren may be
available.
DNA Laboratories. The DNA program currentlyhas laboratories
within BH at Tuzla and Sarajevo witha third facility, located in
Banja Luka, to begin opera-tions in the summer of this year. The
Tuzla DNA labo-ratory, with an initial staff of six, will be
dedicated tolarge scale testing of blood specimens. The SarajevoDNA
laboratory, with a staff of 12, will be dedicatedto the processing
of bone specimens from non-pre-sumptive identification cases and
the Banja LukaDNA laboratory, with an initial staff of four, will
con-centrate on the testing of presumptive cases. To date,10 of
these scientists have been sent out of country toa fully functional
DNA laboratory for training. AllDNA profiles that are obtained in
any of these centerswill be submitted to a central DNA database
locatedin the Tuzla family outreach centers headquarters.
At the current time, two multiplex short tandemrepeat (STR)
systems (AmpflSTR Profiler PlusTM andAmpflSTR COfilerTM) from
Applied Biosystems in Fos-ter City, California, USA (8), and one
megaplex STRsystem (PowerPlexTM 16TM) from Promega in Madi-son,
Wisconsin, USA, are in the process of validation.In addition, one
Y-chromosome STR system (Y-PlexTM
6), also from Promega, is currently being validated.Since over
90% of the missing are male, Y-chromo-some testing may prove to be
highly beneficial (9).For mtDNA testing, standard control region
sequenc-
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ing as well as a Roche developed mtDNA strip will
beinvestigated.
Croatia. Within Croatia, there are three DNA lab-oratories,
located in Zagreb, Split, and Osijek, whichare involved in testing
cases of missing persons. TheSplit DNA laboratory was established
independently(10), but has since become involved in National
pro-gram, whereas the Zagreb and Osijek DNA laborato-ries were
funded and developed by the Croatian gov-ernment.
The ICMP has aided this system by donatingDNA equipment. This
initial donation consisted of 2ABI DNA sequencers (377 models) and
3 ABIthermocyclers (9700 models) and a limited quantityof DNA
reagents. In addition, the ICMP will hire andfund a contractor to
renovate the DNA laboratory inZagreb and negotiations are currently
underway tofund the hiring of additional staff members for each
ofthese DNA laboratories, as well as the purchase of ad-ditional
supplies and equipment. The ICMP openedan office in Zagreb on April
2, 2001.
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Within Serbia,ICMP is currently
in negotiations to establish a DNAfacility and a Family Outreach
System in Serbia. Atthis time, officials in Serbia have stated
their agree-ment with the ICMP strategy and both the DNA
labo-ratory and blood collection operations should befunctional by
the end of summer to early fall. AnICMP office was opened in
Belgrade in March of2001.
In Kosovo, the ICMP funded the TransculturalPsychosocial
Organization to collect ante mortemdata and blood samples from the
families of the miss-ing. As of February 1 of this year, these
functions be-came part of an ICMP family outreach centers as
theTranscultural Psychosocial Organization office inPrishtina and
its staff transferred to the ICMP. TheICRC reports approximately
resolved tracing requestsin Kosovo. The goals of the ICMP in Kosovo
are tocontinue the blood collection efforts (over 2,000blood
samples have been collected to date) and toperform DNA testing on
both the blood specimens aswell as bone specimens. The ICMP does
not plan todevelop a DNA testing laboratory in Kosovo, but totake
the samples out of country for processing.
Preliminary Results and Discussion of HumanIdentification
The ICMP receives two types of cases for DNAtesting, presumptive
and non-presumptive. Presump-tive cases are remains where a family
member hasrecognized a personal item they believe belonged tothe
individual the family member claims is missing,or where some form
of identification has been foundon or near the body, and there is
general agreementon physical characteristics between ante mortem
andpost mortem data. Non- presumptive cases involveremains where
there is little or no information as tothe identity of the exhumed
individual.
The ICMP, in conjunction with the ICRC, devel-oped and published
a Book of Photos from cases asso-ciated with the 1995 fall of
Srebrenica. This Book of
Photos contained digital photographs of personalitems from 335
exhumed individuals, was widely dis-tributed, and was viewed by
slightly more than 2,000family members. Of these two thousand
viewings,135 families recognized various items. After these
ini-tial recognitions, the lead pathologist of theSrebrenica cases
interviewed these families, com-piled ante mortem data, and
compared this informa-tion with the post mortem remains. From these
135recognition cases, 23 developed into a
presumptiveidentification.
In order to get answers back to the families asquickly as
possible, the ICMP sent presumptive casesout of country for DNA
testing (to the LudwikRydygier University School of Medical
Sciences inBydgoszcz, Poland, and to the Armed Forces
Identifi-cation DNA Laboratory in Rockville, MD, USA), in-cluding
all 23 presumptive identification cases result-ing from the Book of
Photos. To date, the results ofnine of the cases associated with
the Book of Photoshave been returned to the ICMP. Of these, five
haveresulted in a DNA match and four in an exclusion.Since
September of 2000, the ICMP has sent a total of313 presumptive
identification cases out of countryfor DNA testing. Some of these
cases were related toindividual presumptive identification cases
and otherto group losses. Examples of group losses include sev-eral
incidents in which the remains were removedfrom their primary
burial site and reburied at a sec-ondary site. After informants led
investigators to thescene of the original burial site, only a few
scatteredbone fragments were able to be recovered. Fromthese
fragments, no individual presumptive identifi-cation cases could be
developed. However, the infor-mant was able to state who he/she
thought had beenburied at this primary site. By using this
information,relatives of the individuals alleged to have been
bur-ied at the primary site had a blood sample taken. Mul-tiple
fragments of bone specimens from these sitesand corresponding blood
samples were tested andmultiple DNA matches have been obtained
fromthese cases. In addition, the ICMP has received DNAtest results
on 86 individual presumptive identifica-tion cases. Of these 86, 56
(65%) cases have sup-ported the presumptive identification, 24
(30%) wereexclusions, 2 (2%) were inconclusive, and no resultswere
obtained on another 2 (2%) cases. For the casesin which no results
were obtained, additional speci-mens will be sent. The two
inconclusive cases wereboth tested via mtDNA. One displayed
multiplemtDNA sequences (contamination) and the other haddisplayed
a single nucleotide difference between thebone sample and the
family reference. An additionalbone specimen from the case that
displayed contami-nation will be submitted for DNA testing. For
theother inconclusive case, nuclear DNA has been ob-tained from the
bone specimen and a nuclear DNAdonor has been sampled for DNA
testing.
Acknowlegdment
The ICMP would like to thank a number of governmentsand private
corporations for their generosity and continued sup-port: those
from The List of Government Donors United State ofAmerica, the
Netherlands, Great Britain, Denmark, Iceland, Swit-
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zerland, and the United Nations, and The List of Private
Corpo-rate Donors Applied Biosystems, Promega, VWR, Roche,Revco,
and Millipore.
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Received: April 18, 2001
Accepted: April 28, 2001
Correspondence to:
Edwin Huffine
Director, DNA Program
International Commission on Missing Persons
Alipaina 45a, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
[email protected]
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