Nearly 11,000 still missing from Balkan wars: ICRC

Nearly 11,000 people are still missing from the 1990s Balkan wars, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday, expressing concern over the slow pace of establishing their fates.

During the conflicts that accompanied the collapse of the former Yugoslavia, almost 35,000 people went missing, including 22,000 from Bosnia. The fates of about 70 percent of them have been established.

"However, more than 20 years after the wars, the families of some 10,700 missing people are still burdened with uncertainty about what happened to their loved ones," the ICRC said in a statement.

Marking the International Day of the Disappeared, ICRC President Peter Maurer urged authorities worldwide to "generate political will necessary to provide answers" to such families.

"Steps must be taken to prevent disappearances, and to collect all the information available when people do disappear, because, at some point, this information might help bring answers," Maurer said.

It is estimated that at least 130,000 people were killed in the region's 1990s conflicts. Most of them -- some 100,000 -- died in Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.