The families of the killed and missing from Republika Srpska, due to the complete standstill in the exhumation and identification of Serbian victims in the past war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, rightly doubt the origin and validity of the remains of Bosniaks being buried every year in Potočari outside Srebrenica, Veljko Lazić, the head of the Republican organisation of these families told Serbian News Agency SRNA.

 “We are rightfully asking whose remains are annually buried in Potočari near Srebrenica, being presented as Bosniaks’ and where they are bringing them from,” pointed out Lazić.

Lazić notes that 30 years after the end of the war, the disproportionately large number of identified and buried Bosniaks in Srebrenica compared to all Serbian victims in the past war in Bosnia and Herzegovina is extremely unacceptable for the families of the killed in Republika Srpska.

He stated that only one body of Serbian nationality was exhumed in BiH last year, while 50 identified Bosniaks were buried in Potočari this year alone.

Lazić says that the Republican Organisation has no cooperation with the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which as a rule should inform about the bodies exhumed, who they found and identified.

He reminded that the Board of Directors of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been working illegally for the second term, because its members were not selected by regular procedure.

Lazić concludes that Bosnia and Herzegovina needs to carry out a full reform of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or else that institution should be abolished, and the process of searching for missing Serbs should be returned to the jurisdiction of Republika Srpska.