Giving names to Ukraine’s missing

The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) has been working in Ukraine on and off since 2014.  Following the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2023, ICMP was invited by the Office of the Prosecutor to augment its support.  Over 30,000 persons are missing and the numbers continue to rise as the war continues.  People are missing in Ukraine for various reasons – forced deportations and incommunicado detention, summary executions, kidnapping, human trafficking, unlawful adoption and the day-to-day ravages of war among them.

“Around 600 people were missing from the original invasion of Crimea and other parts of Eastern Ukraine, mainly Tatar communities,” says ICMP’s Director-General, Kathryne Bomberger. Then came a “desperate call for help” following the 2022 invasion, after which ICMP established an office in the country. 

It’s now working with the Ukrainian government to develop a sustainable missing persons process that includes building a secure, high-volume, DNA-led identification and insure that the families are a central part of the process.  

As an intergovernmental organization, ICMP is helping to facilitate coordination among the relevant Ukrainian ministries and relatives of the missing residing both in Ukraine and outside Ukraine who are dispersed across Poland, Western Europe and elsewhere. 

ICMP works with governments, civil society organizations, justice institutions, international organizations and others throughout the world to address the issue of people who have gone missing as a result of armed conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime, irregular migration and other causes.

Mass graves

“ICMP’s main objective is to insure that states take responsibility to locate missing and investigate their disappearance.  We maintain seven different cross-cutting programs, including support in creating purpose-specific institutions and legislation, support to families of the missing and technical support including data systems, forensic investigations and the use of DNA-based identifications,” Kathryne says. This includes working with the prosecutor's office to insure they're trained to excavate crime scenes – including mass grave sites – to a level where evidence can be provided to an international criminal tribunal. 

Mass graves were initially found in 2014, and then again in April 2022, following the Russian Federation invasion, indicating ‘a pattern of activity’ says ICMP. “Normally, countries don't have forensic anthropologists or archaeologists, and that’s the case in Ukraine, so we have a team of forensic specialists who can be in the field, who can do proper excavations – that evidence is also important for criminal trial purposes,” she says. “And then anthropologists who can help carefully exhume the bodies, and then they go to a mortuary to examine the bodies and take bone samples.”

All of this means a lot of work on the political level, across the ministries of health, defense, the interior and others, she points out. “We are trying to help the relevant ministries create a centralized structure, or institution with a central record,” she says.

The police have still been handling missing persons cases in the same way they did before the war, she explains, “one case at a time,” with different government bodies dealing with others, so ICMP has stressed the urgent need to synchronize and harmonize the work. “You have to be really in tune and in step in doing this because if any mistakes happen, that will haunt you. There will be misidentification, families won't have answers, and evidence won't go to courts.”

Kathryne Bomberger has worked at ICMP since 1998 and was appointed Director-General in 2004. She has previously held positions at the UN, the US Senate and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and has worked in conflict zones and areas affected by natural disasters across the world.

Building trust

ICMP is currently finalizing cooperation with the Ukrainian government, which will be critical in scaling up the program, and there’s also been a tremendous amount of work trying to build confidence among the families of the missing, she explains. 

“It is important to collect genetic reference samples from at least two to three families of the missing. This requires building trust with survivors and maintaining a survivor-centered approach. Outreach campaigns must include understanding what the human rights of surviving families are under the law, understanding who's responsible and explaining privacy rights, because the data is private to the families of the missing,” explains Kathryne. “You really have to be hugely sensitive on a social level. So the science comes in and out of a social structure, and a governmental-political structure. By the time the data  gets to the lab you've already gone through a major set of hurdles to even get it to that point.”

ICMP is not a scientific organization, she points out. “We use science as a tool to insure that governments take responsibility and are accountable for finding people in line with the rule of law – meaning, in an impartial manner, respecting human rights and providing evidence regarding atrocities committed and holding perpetrators to account. We were the first organization to use advanced DNA methods to identify missing persons on a large-scale. ICMP promotes the use of scientific identifications.  In cases like Ukraine, the Western Balkans, Iraq, Syria, Colombia, Mexico and other areas of the world, the scale of missing persons is so large, it’s important to incorporate a DNA-led approach that incorporates the collection, processing and matching of data on a large-scale.” 

In the past DNA was either not used – which meant incorrect identification results and large numbers of unidentified mortal remains – or if was used, it was to confirm a presumptive identification, she says. ICMP wants to insure DNA is always used as the first line of identification.

Adnan ‘Adi’ Rizvic is Director of Data Systems and Coordination at ICMP, and was instrumental in establishing the organization’s Identification Coordination Division. Before joining ICMP in 2000, he was Physicians for Human Rights’ Forensic Program Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Impartial evidence

The organization’s state-of-the-art lab in The Hague is dedicated to human identification and “is set-up for large-scale processes,” she says – no country on its own, especially one fighting a large-scale war to defend itself, could manage to locate and identify such a large number of missing persons...” It’s also important politically for ICMP to provide support, she points out. “Because we're an international organization, we're impartial – so our evidence in court is going to be crucial.” 

One of ICMP’s specialisms is carrying out extractions of ‘very challenging’ bone samples, including those that were burnt or chemically treated – something that’s essential in Ukraine.

The actual number of missing is likely to remain unknown for some time, partly because neither the issue of missing and dead soldiers is confidential. “That's top secret, and pretty common during war,” she says. There are also the people who may be in hidden detention in Russia, as well as the huge refugee population, adds ICMP’s Director of Data Systems and Coordination, Adi Rizvic. 

“The family members who fled to countries in Western Europe need to be taken into consideration if somebody needs to reach them,” he says. “There’s still a huge number of unknowns.” This is another reason why engaging the families from the very beginning is crucial, he stresses. “If whoever has a missing person provides a reference sample then it’s way easier. The important thing is full support from the family members, because without them it’s impossible. We sat with them and said we don’t know if it will work, but we have to try. And they trust us.”

ICMP has been active in some 40 countries. Its operations in Europe began with its work in the Western Balkans immediately after the signing of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. Since then, ICMP has assisted Cyprus, Albania, Norway, Ukraine and countries in the Caucasus. ICMP has also provided forensic analysis to police investigations in Greece and Germany.

Close cooperation

ICMP has been working with QIAGEN for more than two decades – including in the Philippines, Iraq, Syria, Chile, Brazil and identifying Tsunami victims in Thailand – and “they’re one of our most trusted partners”, says Adi.

“QIAGEN’s comprehensive missing persons workflow bears testament to a close partnership with the ICMP over many years. We are proud to have supported and in return learned so much from this inspiring team,” says Keith Elliott, Senior Director of HID Global Marketing.   

“I went to Hilden to meet with QIAGEN scientists a while ago,” adds Kathryne. “They do many great things, but I think they were all very proud and excited that they were also advancing the technology to help the world with missing persons.” 

Given the immense logistical challenges and the harrowing nature of the work, what motivates the team at ICMP to keep going? “Adi and I have been doing this forever,” says Kathryne. “But what happened in the former Yugoslavia gives us a lot of optimism, because we now know the pitfalls. I think that's a very strong motivation for all of us – we've been through the wringer, and we know all the things that can go wrong.”

“From my perspective, I’m Bosnian by birth,” says Adi. “So I saw how important it is to heal the country. Because the truth will be there. It won’t be a hidden story.”