Bosnian war "claimed 100,000 lives"
Deutsche Presse-Agentur - November 21, 2005, Monday  

Oslo/Sarajevo - The confirmed death toll in the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia appears to be closer to 100,000 dead than the often- quoted figure of 200,000, a Norwegian news agency reported Monday, quoting the head of the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (RDC).

"In October we had 93,000 names on our lists and the numbers are increasing slightly. But the final tally will likely be around 100,000," Mirsad Tokaca was quoted as saying.

The centre was set up in April 2004 "to investigate and gather facts, documents and data on genocide, war crimes and human rights violations, regardless of the ethnic, political, religious, social, or racial affiliation of the victims."

It has received funding from among others the Norwegian government.

A similar estimate has also been used by population statisticians at the United Nations war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The estimate published by researchers Ewa Tabeau and Jacub Biljak was 102,000.

All of the casualties listed by Tokaca and his co-researchers have been identified by name.

"Our research suggests that about 70 per cent of those killed were Bosniacs (Bosnian Moslems), 25 per cent of the killed were Bosnian Serbs and 5 per cent were Bosnian Croats," Tokaca said.

Tokaca said the number of 250,000 or even 300,000 dead has "never been based on research".

15:13:38 Central European Time

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