In connection with the 30th of August, the International Day of the Disappeared, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection notes that, even after 20 years since the end of the armed conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and 15 years after the end of the armed conflict in Kosovo and Metohia, we still do not have reliable information on the destiny of almost 11,000 persons in the territory of former Yugoslavia.

Giving his full support to the efforts of the Coordination Body for the Associations of Families of Disappeared, Murdered and Killed Persons in Former Yugoslavia to remember the disappeared persons on this date and to remind the government and the society as a whole of their duty to shed light on the destiny of those persons, the Commissioner remains hopeful that all public service broadcasters in the region (in Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo and Prishtina) asked by the Coordinating Body to broadcast topical video spots would comply with this request.

The Commissioner pleads with all national and other authorities to take action within their mandate and the means available to them to disclose, obtain and make available relevant information on a continual basis as their contribution towards providing closure to the grave humanitarian issue of disappeared persons, which has remained unaddressed for far too long.