INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE VICTIMS OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES: SPEED UP THE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING AND COMPENSATE ALL VICTIMS’ FAMILIES
On the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, marked on 30 August, Human Rights Action (HRA), the Montenegrin Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights (CKP), the Centre for Women’s and Peace Education ANIMA, and the Association “Štrpci – Against Oblivion” call on Montenegro to step up its efforts, in cooperation with other countries in the region, to find and identify persons who went missing during the wars of the 1990s. According to the list of the Government of Montenegro’s Commission on Missing Persons, 50 people are still being searched for – 38 in Kosovo, nine in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and three in Croatia. We demand a thorough investigation of all possible grave sites, including Lake Perućac, where the search continues for 16 of the 20 victims of the Štrpci train abduction. Individually, the search continues for Sadik Ramcaj, a victim in the Kaluđerski Laz case, Osmo Bajrović, a victim in the Deportation case, and Miloš Perunović, a victim in the Lora case, as well as for persons who were victims of individual abductions and disappearances in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while important progress has been made in the case of the members of the Klapuh family, whose remains have been found and identified.
In particular, we demand that the recommendations of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances be accepted, according to which enforced disappearance should be established as a separate criminal offence, victims of enforced disappearance should be granted the right to free legal aid, and the legal status of missing persons and their relatives should be regulated so that they are not obliged to have the missing person declared dead. We also demand that the state provide equal compensation to all families in the same situation as the 16 families who have already been granted one-off payments on the basis of their acquired status as civilian victims of war.
The public version of the Database of Active Cases of Missing Persons from the Conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia currently contains 11,188 cases of missing persons. The database is managed by the Missing Persons Group, a multilateral regional cooperation mechanism established under the Berlin Process for the Western Balkans. The Group consists of domestic institutions responsible for tracing and identifying missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia.
More than three decades after the wars in the former Yugoslavia, thousands of families are still waiting to learn the fate of their loved ones. Establishing the fate of missing persons is a legal and moral obligation to the victims, their families, and society as a whole, but the countries of the region still have not shown sufficient political will to resolve this issue without further delay.
Our organisations particularly point to the need for a thorough search of Lake Perućac. So far, the remains of only four of the 20 victims of the Štrpci train abduction have been found there, and the lake has never been thoroughly searched.
In the Kaluđerski Laz case, the search continues for one victim, Sadik Ramcaj (72), from Vrelo near Istok in Kosovo, who was killed by members of the Army of Serbia and Montenegro in 1999 in the village of Police near Rožaje, in the border area with the Republic of Serbia. According to witness accounts, he was held tied to a tree for days, and after he died as a result of the abuse, his body was never found. It is believed to have been moved elsewhere or buried in the vicinity of the place where he was killed.
In the Deportation case, the search continues for several refugees and other citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who were unlawfully deprived of their liberty in Montenegro and handed over to the armed forces of the Republika Srpska in BiH. Among them is Osmo Bajrović, whose family lives in Herceg Novi. The last that is known is that the group of arrested persons, which included Bajrović, was taken from Herceg Novi on 27 May 1992 and brought to the VRS Military Staff in Bratunac, after which all trace of them was lost.
In the Lora case, of the fourteen soldiers belonging to the so-called Nikšić-Šavnik group of the JNA, believed to have been prisoners of war at the Croatian Army’s military investigation centre in Split, the search continues for the body of Miloš Perunović. The remains of the other twelve have been found at various locations in BiH, in the areas around Mostar and Trebinje.
Important progress has been made in establishing the fate of the Klapuh family, whose members Hasan, Ferida, and Sena were killed in 1992 in Plužine. The remains of Ferida and Sena Klapuh were preliminarily identified through DNA analysis and handed over to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 2025. Following a repeat exhumation, the identity of Hasan Klapuh was also preliminarily confirmed in July 2026, and his remains were handed over to the Institute for final identification and a dignified burial.
In February 2025, Montenegro finally recognised, by law, the status of civilian victims of war for persons killed or missing during the wars of the 1990s in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and provided monthly benefits to members of their families. The Government also approved one-off payments of €100,000 each for 16 families of victims from the Murino, Tuzi, Štrpci, and Deportation cases, on the basis of their acquired status as civilian victims of war, as compensation for three decades without social assistance.
We once again welcome this important step forward by the authorities, and once again appeal for equal treatment of other families who are in the same situation and who deserve compensation.
In its concluding observations of October 2025, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) expressed concern to Montenegro over the limited progress made in establishing the fate of missing persons and identifying their remains, as well as over excessive delays in investigations and criminal prosecution of war crimes. It recommended that Montenegro strengthen regional cooperation and the exchange of information and evidence, establish a comprehensive reparations programme for all victims of enforced disappearance – regardless of when the disappearance occurred or whether criminal proceedings have been initiated – and remove obstacles such as statutes of limitations and unequal treatment that restrict families of the missing from accessing compensation.
The Committee also reiterated its recommendation that enforced disappearance be established as a separate criminal offence, with penalties and a statute of limitations proportionate to its gravity, whereby the limitation period must not begin before the disappearance ends, as well as that victims be provided with free legal aid and that their legal status in the fields of social protection, family law, and property law be regulated without first requiring the missing person to be declared dead.
Improving the mechanisms for uncovering the fate of missing persons is one of the goals of the War Crimes Investigation Strategy 2024–2027. Its implementation, however, must produce concrete results: finding and identifying the missing, effective investigations, prosecution of those responsible, and the realisation of victims’ rights to truth, justice, and reparations.
We call on the competent authorities of Montenegro and other countries in the region to fulfil their assumed obligations without further delay. Families of the missing have the right to learn the truth, to give their loved ones a dignified burial, and to obtain justice and appropriate compensation.
The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances has been observed since 2011. It was established by UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/65/209 to draw attention to the fate of missing persons and their families’ rights to truth, justice, and reparations.
Human Rights Action (HRA)
Montenegrin Committee of Lawyers for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms (CKM)
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