The war crimes department of Bosnia’s State Prosecution Office processed so far 409 cases, involving 818 suspects of war crimes and grave breaches of international humanitarian law, Chief Prosecutor Gordana Tadic and her team told the Chief Prosecutor at the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (UNMICT), Serge Brammertz, on Tuesday.

Brammertz, who is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and Bosnia’s war crimes prosecutors discussed changes to the country’s strategy regarding cases of war crimes and improvement of regional cooperation in prosecuting war crimes, the State Prosecutor’s Office said.

The search for more than 7,000 missing persons was also discussed at the meeting. Institutions are working together with associations of war victims and missing persons’ families on the issue.

The prosecutors also spoke about the need to strengthen cooperation in joint activities through engaging communication officers and Bosnia's need to access the UNMICT database in order to obtain evidence that would allow Bosnia’s Prosecutor’s Office to meet the goals set within the state strategy for working on war crimes cases.

UNMICT’s continuous support is necessary, especially regarding already identified ongoing complex cases, Tadic said. Brammertz expressed support for Bosnia’s Prosecutor’s Office in its work on prosecuting war crimes.