On the International Day of the Disappeared, observed on 30 August, the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) recalls that the issue of persons missing as a result of the wars of the 1990s remains one of the most difficult and painful unresolved issues of the war legacy in the former Yugoslavia. More than three decades after the conflicts ended, thousands of families are still waiting for answers about the fate of their loved ones.
Missing persons are those reported missing as a result of an international or non-international armed conflict or internal violence. According to the current public database of active cases of persons missing from the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, managed by the Missing Persons Group, a multilateral mechanism for regional cooperation within the Berlin Process for the Western Balkans, 11,188 cases of missing persons from the former Yugoslavia remain active.
Montenegro bears its share of responsibility in this process. According to data from the Commission on Missing Persons of the Government of Montenegro, 50 persons are currently being sought – 38 who went missing in Kosovo, nine in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three in Croatia. Although this number is lower than in some countries in the region, behind every figure is a person and a family that has been waiting for decades for information, identification, and the opportunity to give their family member a dignified burial and mark their final resting place.
At the end of 2024, one case was closed on Montenegro’s list of missing persons. It concerned R. Š., a civilian victim who went missing in Đakovica in 1999 and whose remains were buried in April 2025. Montenegro has also continued its cooperation with institutions in neighbouring countries. In July this year, following a renewed exhumation in Nikšić and DNA analysis, the identity of Hasan Klapuh, the third member of the Klapuh family, was preliminarily confirmed. His remains were handed over to the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the remains of the previously identified Ferida and Sena Klapuh were handed over in December 2025.
The importance of regional cooperation is also demonstrated by data presented at the February 2026 meeting of the commissions on missing persons of Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo. Representatives of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) stated that, during the previous year, they had received 58 bone reference samples, 170 blood samples from family members and 62 DNA reports, which resulted in the identification of 26 victims.
Every unresolved case of a missing person requires a continuous institutional response. Efforts to search for missing persons and establish the facts about their fate must be intensified, existing agreements and protocols between states must be implemented more effectively, archives that may contain relevant information must be opened, and the capacities and cooperation of the institutions involved in this process must be strengthened. At the same time, families of missing persons must be guaranteed an appropriate legal and social status, as well as meaningful participation in the search process. CCE has also highlighted the need to improve this process in its publication “Montenegro – Persons Missing as a Result of the Armed Conflicts of the 1990s – Overview and Recommendations for Improving the Results of the Search for Missing Persons and the Position of Their Families.”
Borders must not hinder the search for missing persons, nor can political relations serve as a justification for decades of delay. For the families of the missing, the passage of time neither closes a case nor diminishes their suffering or their right to know the truth. Missing persons must therefore not become mere numbers in records mentioned once a year – every unresolved case must remain an active obligation of the institutions until the fate of the missing person has been established.
The International Day of the Disappeared is observed on 30 August to reaffirm the right of families to know the fate of their loved ones who remain missing.
Maja Marinović, Programme Associate