Excavation of Mass Graves Begins Today
A U.N. investigator travels to a muddy field dotted with human remains today to supervise the first excavation of Bosnia's hundreds of suspected mass graves. Manfred Nowak, a U.N. investigator looking for missing and displaced persons, will visit the area of Jacye in northern Bosnia, where flooding recently uncovered three mass graves thought to contain 46 bodies. The dig is the first step in uncovering the war's hidden brutalities, and answering the questions consuming the relatives of tens of thousands of missing.

Excavating the up to 300 graves scattered across Bosnia may give the international war crimes tribunal more evidence, but unless indicted war criminals are arrested and actually tried, the thirst for revenge may go unslaked. On Thursday, in a field near the town of Glogova in eastern Bosnia, Nowak viewed more signs of large-scale carnage. Bones, some with human flesh still on them, protruded from the snow and mud. One human leg still wore what appeared to be pajamas. A few empty boots and scraps of garments lay nearby. Thousands of Muslims last seen in Srebrenica, an enclave overrun by the Serbs in July, are believed buried at the site.

Nowak, snapping some photographs, said it was imperative to begin excavation as soon as weather permits "in order to find out the fate and whereabouts of many thousands of missing persons." He said he received assurances from the new Serb mayor of Srebrenica "that I would have full access to all alleged sites of mass graves, or other places where I could find evidence about the whereabouts of missing persons." Without learning the fate of the missing, "we will never achieve a lasting peace," Nowak noted.