Remembering the disappeared in Bosnia

Around 500 people gathered for a collective funeral at a stadium in Prijedor in July, before burying the remains of their family members in local cemeteries. This time, the bodies of 23 people had been identified. The youngest victim was 18 and the oldest 72. The remains of three people from the village of Zecovi were also buried.

"More than 20 years have passed and I am still waiting to bury my mother, my brothers and my sister. The longer I wait to find them, the harder it becomes for me and my family. The waiting is killing us," said Z.B. The remains of his neighbor were found in the nearby city of Prijedor. Z.B. also helped at the burial.

Z.B.'s phone rings day and night. "I am responsible for organizing the ceremony. The less time I have to think, the easier it is for me," he said. This year, representatives from different ethnic groups will attend the burial. "This is a large step for this city. This is what life together is about; this is the reconciliation that we all want."

His youngest son, who is 7 years old, visited the exhibition "Guilty of Nothing" by the painter Mensur Beslagic of Bosnia-Herzegovinia. To the left is a portrait of Z.B.'s cousin, who was only 6 when she was murdered.

Z.B. was the only one to survive the Zecovi Massacre on July 25, 1992. He was 14 years old when Serbian forces killed 29 women and children. Among them were his mother, two brothers, a sister and other relatives. His Serbian neighbor hid him for eight days. Later, he went to Germany with his father and a brother but returned in 2000.

The picture to the left shows his mother and sisters and the one to the right, his brothers. They are all still considered to be missing. "I got the picture from a friend in the village. Otherwise, I have nothing. That's all that's left - just this picture and the memories."

The remains of the 2,325 people who were murdered in the region were found in 450 different places. Often, the bodies of those murdered are found several kilometers away from the place they lived. This makes cross-border cooperation necessary for identification and prosecution purposes. The remains and personal belongings are kept in a mortuary in Sanski Most.

Governments have also gotten involved in the exhumation process. Until recently, family members of victims, like Z.B., searched in desperation for the missing persons and went digging on their own.

"When I go for walks here, I recall my brutal childhood that was disrupted by violence," said Z.B. at a lake near Prijedor.