Fresh Call For Probe Of Balkan War Disappearances

Children place flowers and balloons on chairs in Sarajevo in April 2012 to honor more than 11,000 children killed in the Bosnian war.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged authorities in Balkan states to investigate the fate of some 14,000 people still missing from the region's conflicts of the 1990s and to punish those responsible for forced "disappearances."

The call was made in a statement issued by Amnesty International ahead of International Day of the Disappeared on August 30.

"People living in the Balkans have not closed the chapter of enforced disappearances," the statement cautioned.

Jezerca Tigani, Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia deputy program director, called on governments to "ensure that all victims and their families have access to justice."

The statement accused authorities in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Kosovo of failing "to abide by their international legal obligations to effectively investigate and prosecute" missing-persons cases.

Based on reporting by AP and RFE/RL