SARAJEVO and WASHINGTON, April 5, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) made its 100th in country DNA-based identification report yesterday, April 4 - less than six months after making its first, on November 16, 2001. The majority of these 100 DNA-based identification reports have been generated in the past two weeks.
"This remarkable achievement represents the triumphant union of ICMP's efforts to engage the former warring parties in a process of recovering victims lost in the tragic conflicts in the regions of the former Yugoslavia, with the successful implementation of an 'against-the-odds,' high-tech DNA identification process in a war torn region, to finally providing a tangible answer on the fate of a missing loved one," stated Mr. James Kimsey, ICMP Chairman.
For the first time this week, the DNA profile of a subsequently identified person was used to identify a second set of skeletal remains, indicating that as identifications continue, the profiles can assist in cases where multiple individuals from the same family are missing.
"DNA testing is no longer too expensive or too slow to be employed in identification cases," said Ed Huffine, Director of Forensic Sciences for ICMP. "Indeed, it is far more feasible than ever before and will become a standard practice in the future."
As bone samples, taken from unidentified human remains that have been exhumed in the region, and blood samples, taken from relatives of missing persons, are processed at ICMP's Tuzla and Sarajevo laboratories, the DNA profiles are input into two distinct databases. Daily comparisons of these databases yield between four and 18 DNA matches.
In one day, in late March, ICMP generated 16 DNA match reports for bodies from Srebrenica, surpassing the number of successful identifications in the first three years of Srebrenica identification efforts combined.
ICMP obtained 2,992 DNA profiles from relatives of missing persons in March, and has reported 415 DNA profiles from bone samples in the past 17 working days - equal to a monthly average of 510. The success rate at obtaining DNA profiles from bone samples is better than 90 percent and is among the best in the world. Only the United States, in the wake of the collapse of the World Trade Center Twin Towers, has come close to matching the speed of ICMP's DNA profiling. Bosnia and Herzegovina is now one of the world's leaders at this most difficult form of DNA testing.
As ICMP prepares to enter the next phase of its DNA identification efforts, increasing throughput at its Tuzla and Sarajevo facilities by 50 percent, the science of identification has changed. The DNA profiling and database comparison technologies developed by ICMP have dramatically reduced the cost of DNA testing, while improving accuracy and speed.
ICMP was created in 1996 at the G-7 Summit, in Lyon, France. Its primary objectives include: to intensify government efforts to release information on the missing; to assist in building a regional capacity to accelerate the process of recovery and identification of mortal remains that incorporates the use of state-of-the-art DNA technology; and to strengthen the capability of associations of families of missing persons to address the issue. The current chairman of ICMP is Mr. James V. Kimsey. Mr. Kimsey is the Founding CEO and Chairman Emeritus of America Online Inc (AOL), as well as a Philanthropist and Vietnam war veteran.