Psychosocial approach in work with families of missing persons.
The problem of finding and identifying missing persons from the war in Bosnia Herzegovina (1992-95) remains one of the most painful consequences of the conflict. Around 13.000 people are still considered missing. The suffering experienced by the families of missing persons can be viewed as a kind of torture, and therefore considered as a serious violation of human rights. This paper presents findings from a 2 year project working with 20 women with missing family members. Group work was conducted with 20 women at the location where their trauma occurred over a 2 year period.
The women had losses of family members ranging from one to twenty per woman. All had suffered from multiple traumas during the war. Our work was directed towards working through individual experiences, individual resources, as the way of dealing with loss and uncertainty. The work included our presence at the marking of the day of disappearance, the unveiling of a monument, as well as work with individual suffering. The study analysed the coping mechanisms of the women through the process of sequentional trauma. Through the project the identification of a number of missing persons was achieved. Those previously missing persons finally had names, not just numbers and they received their own place and space thus acknowledging their previous existence. The return to the place were separation of male family members happened, and community tradition and rituals, such as building monuments with the names of missing persons, made dealing with losses for group members easier. lt is necessary however in the future to pay more attention to the ways of dealing and coping with sorrow and suffering of these women, and how it reflects on the community.
