SHOTLIST ANTALYA, TÜRKİYE (SEPT. 25, 2025) (ANADOLU - ACCESS ALL) 1. NAIM UKA, PRESIDENT OF KOSOVAN ASSOCIATION OF FORENSIC SCIENCES SPEAKINGANTALYA, TÜRKİYE - SEPT. 25: The question of when Israel’s war on Gaza will end looms large, but another pressing issue is what happens afterward – how justice will be pursued and how victims will be identified. At the 20th International Forensic Medicine Days in Antalya, Türkiye, specialists from 27 countries said Bosnia and Herzegovina’s experience, where genocide left painful scars but also forged a model of forensic accountability, offers a framework for Gaza. Mujo Begic, a university professor and head of the Office for Missing Persons in the Bosnian town of Bihac, witnessed those scars up close, as the city endured a three-year siege during the 1992-1995 war. Yet, he said Bosnia’s story shows that even amid deliberate attempts to erase evidence, victims can still be identified and dignity restored. “Through modern forensic techniques, mass crimes have been documented,” he explained. In Bosnia, more than 32,000 people were reported missing. To date, over 24,000 have been exhumed and identified, while over 7,500 remain unaccounted for – the majority from the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys despite the presence of Dutch peacekeepers. One of the greatest obstacles, Begic said, was the systematic effort to erase evidence. “Perpetrators systematically and deliberately concealed and relocated mass graves to erase evidence of their crimes, which has complicated the search process,” he explained. Many victims’ remains were scattered across multiple sites, with some discovered in four or even five different graves. The body of 14-year-old Senad Beganovic, for instance, was recovered from four different sites. - ‘Experts from Bosnia ready to assist Gaza’ However, advanced DNA analysis, introduced through the Institute for Missing Persons with support from the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), proved decisive. “The Bosnian model of search, exhumation and identification can be applied globally,” Begic said. “Experts from Bosnia are ready to assist Gaza in the identification of genocide victims.” He added that technical work must also be tied to accountability. “It is, therefore, necessary, as in the case of Bosnia, to establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Gaza. Such a court should prosecute those most responsible for the crimes committed in Gaza,” he said. He pointed to Bosnia’s own experience, where the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia prosecuted senior political, police and military leaders for war crimes and genocide. In total, 90 people received sentences. The two men considered the masterminds of the genocide – Radovan Karadzic, the former president of Republika Srpska, and Ratko Mladic, who led the Army of Republika Srpska – were both sentenced to life imprisonment. - Kosovo’s warnings Kosovo offers more insight into how the future may unfold in Gaza. UN investigators last week concluded that Israel is committing genocide in the enclave, where its forces have now killed more than 65,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded almost 170,000 since October 2023. Naim Uka, a forensic pathologist and president of the Kosovan Association of Forensic Sciences, said the absence of reliable information remains the biggest barrier in identifying war-related mass graves. “Unfortunately, missing information is a crucial problem in the process of identification in general,” he said. During the 1998-1999 Kosovo War, an estimated 13,000 people were killed and thousands went missing. Many victims, mostly ethnic Albanians, were buried in mass graves. Some were later transferred to secret sites inside Serbia in attempts to cover up evidence. More than 1,600 remain unaccounted for today, and the search for their remains continues under international oversight. Looking at Gaza, Uka warned that uncovering evidence there would be especially difficult given the scale of international crimes. “The state (Israel) has all the things to hide the crimes and to make mass graves everywhere. The crucial problem is to find them,” he said. “And to find them without information is impossible.” - Political obstacles Uka noted that forensic work is often slowed by restrictions on military data, which can remain sealed for decades. He added that political agendas frequently complicate investigations. “Every time when we are facing the identification process, some of the political issues become a problem,” he said. Still, he insisted progress is possible if the work is rooted in international cooperation. “It requires working with institutions, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICMP, and based on the protocols from Interpol,” Uka said. As Gaza faces an uncertain future, both Uka and Begic underlined that Bosnia and Kosovo’s painful experiences show the importance of forensic investigations – and that international cooperation will be essential to uncover the truth, identify the victims, and ensure that Israel is held accountable.