Over 7,000 persons, the victims of the 1990s war in Bosnia and Herzegovina are still missing, according to the Missing Persons Institute (MPI), and the search for their remains have entered the most difficult stage, said MPI Spokesperson Emza Fazlic.

“Some 25,500 mortal remains have been exhumed by now. Of that number, about 24,000 body remains were handed to their families. We can say that 85 percent of the missing persons have been found. However, the search process has entered the most difficult stage. Given the time that passed and the changes in the field, it is hard to get right information which would lead to the mass grave sites,” said Fazlic, speaking ahead of the International Day of the Disappeared, which is marked on 30 August.

According to her, the Institute's staff is constantly in the field and searching for the clues that would lead them to the missing persons’ remains.

Only this year they have exhumed 53 remains so far and identified 170 persons, she stressed.

The missing persons’ families, international organisations, NGOs and state institutions across the world mark August 30 as the International Day of the Disappeared. The 85% rate of the found remains in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the highest rate of the solved cases reached in a post-conflict society in the world.

According to the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), some 40,000 persons went missing in the ex-Yugoslavia conflicts of the 1990s, of which 30,000 disappeared in Bosnia.