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86 Srebrenica Victims Exhumed So Far at Cerska
Some are male bodies in civilian clothes,
"There are up to 30 more still buried here," said team leader William Haglund after a ninth day of arduous, grisly labour to excavate the first of several suspected mass tombs in support of indictments against Serb commanders. Around 8,000 Muslims went missing after separatist Serbs overran Srebrenica, a Muslim-populated government enclave in eastern Bosnia that was designated a U.N. "safe area."
Witnesses have told the International Criminal Tribunal on former Yugoslavia (ICTY) that many Muslim men were executed as prisoners or killed in ambushes as they fled the region. The ICTY, based in The Hague, has indicted Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and army chief General Ratko Mladic for alleged genocide and crimes against humanity.
Haglund said his team was continuing to uncover male bodies in civilian clothes, some with hands tied with wire behind their backs -- he refused to say exactly how many. ICTY investigators say the dead were lined up as prisoners on one side of a dirt road atop the slope and gunned down from the other side, where the ground was coated with spent bullet casings.
Executed victims toppled over the edge of the road down the embankment, ending up heaped on top of each other before the killers covered them with earth. Serb authorities have maintained that all bodies found around Srebrenica, including hundreds of individual skeletons visible on hillsides, were of soldiers killed in battle. Haglund, a prominent American forensic anthropologist, dismissed the Serb explanation. "It's very difficult to fight with hands tied behind your back," he said.
ICTY experts will undertake forensic testing to identify the corpses and pinpoint injuries with cause and date of death once a secure morgue is found, probably next month. The ICTY's next target for excavation will be a field at Nova Kasaba along one of Serb-controlled eastern Bosnia's main roads. Up to 2,700 Srebrenica massacre victims may be interred in the field, U.S. officials say. Digging there was expected to start on Friday or Saturday.
Suspected mass grave sites have been identified by a few execution survivors or by satellite and spy plane photographs provided by the United States to the U.N. Security Council. |
CERSKA, Bosnia, July 16 (Reuters) - International war crimes investigators said on Tuesday they had exhumed 86 bodies from a mass grave of Muslims machinegunned by Serb forces near the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica a year ago.
Investigators toiled on Tuesday in muggy heat and torrential rain to lift the often skeletal, crumbling bodies out of trenches dug along a forest embankment. Fighting off the stench of putrifying human remains and clouds of bugs and butterflies, the team wrapped the bodies gingerly in plastic bags and stacked them next to a refrigerated container. They will be placed inside the 30-foot (nine metre) by 12-foot (3.7 metre) white container after all corpses are out of the grave, expected by Thursday, according to Haglund. The container's refrigeration unit had not yet been switched on.
Berserkistan, July 12 · Cerska Victims Not Killed in Battle Say Investigators
Berserkistan, July 12 · NATO and Bosnian Serbs Blamed for Failure of Finnish Mission
Berserkistan, July 11 · Serbs Celebrate Srebrenica as Cerska Dig Continues
Berserkistan, July 10 · Body Count Rises to More than 40 at Cerska
Berserkistan, July 10 · Republika Srpska Forces Finns to Abandon Mass Grave Probe
Berserkistan, July 9 · More Bodies Exhumed at Cerska Grave Site
Berserkistan, July 8 · Cerska Grave Site Yields First Corpse
Berserkistan, July 7 · Excavation Begins at Srebrenica Mass Grave
Berserkistan, July 3 · Mladic Promised Safety to Srebrenica Muslims
Berserkistan, May 29 · Documentary Claims Serbia Provided Srebrenica Arms
Berserkistan, Massacre Hill Jim Bartlett in Bosnia's Killing Fields
Berserkistan, Ghosts in the Woods Team Berserkistan Investigates a Srebrenica Massacre Site
SREBRENICA
Serbs Massacre Muslims in "Safe Area" of Srebrenica
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia United Nations
Coalition for International Justice
Reports concerning human rights abuses in Bosnia Intac Access
Major War Criminals/Suspects CalTech's Bosnia Site
Reports on War Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia CalTech's Bosnia Site
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