Dusan Kozarev: Serbia ready to share its experience in finding missing persons with Azerbaijan

Serbia is ready to share its experience with Azerbaijan in the search for missing persons, forensic medical identification, and examination of remains found in mass and secret graves, acting Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia Dusan Kozarev said at an international conference on missing persons within the Baku Dialogue.

Report quotes Kozarev as saying as a result of the conflicts on the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, about 40,000 people went missing, and the fate of more than 9,500 of them still remains unknown.

He noted that over the course of many years, Serbia has developed institutional mechanisms to solve this problem. The country's experience, according to him, has shown the need for constant interaction between state bodies, international organizations, forensic experts, and the families of the missing.

Kozarev also pointed out the importance of the systematic exchange and verification of information. As one of the examples, he cited the regional database of persons missing as a result of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, created within the Berlin Process with the support of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

"Serbia welcomes the opportunity to exchange practical experience with Azerbaijan and other participating states," he emphasized.

Kozarev also expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for its support on the issue of Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity and noted the high level of relations between the two countries.