Back For many of St. Louis’ Bosnian refugees, the war that tore apart their homeland a decade ago is about to become a not-so-distant piece of history. Next month, they might find out exactly what happened to family members who disappeared without a trace. From Dec. 9 through 12, the International Commission on Missing Persons will have a team in St. Louis conducting DNA testing in an effort to link Bosnian refugees here with those who were killed during the fighting in what was then Yugoslavia. Kathy Lass of the Red Cross’ St. Louis Chapter last week told the Southside Bosnian Services Collaborative that this trip will be a follow up to a similar, briefer visit three years ago by the organization. During the first three days of its December visit, the team will be operating out of the International Institute of St. Louis on South Grand; on its final day, work will take place at Saint Louis University’s School of Public Health, Lass said. Lass was quick to note that while the earlier DNA project focused on finding relatives of the victims of the Srebrenica massacre, the upcoming effort will be expanded to possibly link relatives of the war’s victims from throughout what was Yugoslavia – including Bosnians, Croatians and Serbians. “That’s going to be a pretty important event in the lives of a lot of people here,” Lass said during last week’s regular session of the Collaborative. The Southside Bosnian Services Collaborative is an organization of public and private agencies that have services that can be used by the Bosnian refugees. The group meets every six weeks to discuss issues that affect the Bosnian community in Metro St. Louis – estimated at between 30,000 and 50,000 – and ways to inform the Bosnians of the services. The Collaborative is headed by Father Tom Wyrsch, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church. Lass said officials will be better prepared to deal with the impact of the DNA project on local refugees than it was three years ago. This time, she said, mental health support personnel will be on hand. “We’re going to try to learn from our own experiences” so the event won’t be as traumatic on those having their DNA tested, she said. On another front, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Older Residents Program (CORP) told the Collaborative that her agency is trying to establish contact with the Bosnian community but having little success. Patty Gramke, coordinator for the county agency, said, “We are having trouble getting the Bosnian population because I don’t think they know we’re here.” CORP offers a variety of services to older residents. For more information about those services, call 314.615.4022. This story may be available for an Adobe Acrobat PDF download. Click on the link below to visit the site download center. If a PDF is available, the file will automatically open in your browser.

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