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High Representative Valentin Inzko
Office of the High Representative and EU Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Emerika Bluma 1
Sarajevo, 71 000, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Honorable High Representative Inzko:
The purpose of this letter concerns the case of Avdo Palić. Mr. Palić was colonel in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina , who was forcibly taken away in July 1995 by soldiers of the Bosnian Serb Army from the U.N. Protection Forces compound in the safe area Žepa. Colonel Palić had gone there to negotiate the evacuation of civilians from the U.N. safe area. His fate has remained unknown ever since.
In 2001, the Human Rights Chamber in Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered the Republika Srpska authorities to conduct a full investigation into the fate of Mr. Palić disappearance.
The Palić Commission was formed after, in January 2006, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Human Rights Commission found that the Republika Srpska authorities had “failed to provide adequate details to establish the facts of the ‘disappearance’ of Colonel Avdo Palić after the fall of Žepa”.
This July will mark the 14th anniversary of the disappearance of Mr. Palić. His family has the right to know his fate but the process of finding the truth has been persistently delayed. On behalf of my colleagues in the House of Representatives signed below, I urge you to do everything in your power to ensure that the search for Avdo Palić is sped up.
Sincerely,
Haris Alibašić, MPA
President of the CNAB