SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)--A Bosnia-based laboratory using DNA profiling has identified 10,000 victims of the violent conflicts that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, lab officials said Thursday. 

The International Commission on Missing Persons - which matches DNA samples from victims with those of family members - said the results proved its technique of compiling a massive DNA database for blind comparisons was successful in helping families learn the fate of their loved ones. 

The lab was set up 10 years ago to help name thousands killed in 1990s ethnic wars of the former Yugoslavia, and started compiling the DNA database five years ago. Many of the bodies, exhumed from mass graves, had deteriorated to an extent they couldn't be identified through common autopsy methods. 

By generating DNA profiles for more than 14,000 victims so far, and comparing those with samples from more than 80,000 people reporting missing family, the commission has found matches for 10,000, it said. About 27,000 people are still missing. 

"The 10,000th missing person to be identified...was a man missing from Prozor, in central Bosnia, since 1993," spokeswoman Doune Porter said. 

More than one family member's DNA profile is required for a blind match to a victim's remains. 

"To have found DNA matches for 10,000 individuals, who could otherwise not have been identified, is a major achievement," said the commission's Director of Forensic Science, Dr. Thomas Parsons. "To have done this in less than five years is remarkable." 

Previously, "the application of DNA typing on such a large scale to provide blind hits was an unproven concept," Parsons said. "It can now be said that the success this approach has demonstrated can serve as a model for similar efforts worldwide." 

The technique has since been used to help identify victims of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York, and the December 2004 tsunami. The agency also has been helping Iraqi authorities identify the war dead. 

Before the commission began its work, identifications were made with autopsy results and information including age, stature, clothing and personal items, with DNA tests only for final confirmations. 

But as time passed and the bodies deteriorated, identifications became more difficult. Many of the remains also had been separated or moved by perpetrators in an effort to hide evidence, so one individual's remains were sometimes found in separate graves. 

The lab's results are sent to a court-appointed pathologist in Sarajevo, who conducts official post-mortem examinations and makes final, legal identifications. The victims' remains are then returned to their families. 

July 06, 2006 05:08 ET (09:08 GMT)