(MRATINCI, Bosnia, April 7—Reuters) The bodies, stripped of their flesh by marauding animals but still wearing tattered rags, are scattered on a forested hilltop where they fell. From the clothing, it can be seen that some are civilians, others are soldiers, possibly 500 of them lying sprawled amid blackened vegetation. All were victims of the terrified Muslim flight from the nearby U.N. "safe haven" of Srebrenica last July as men, women and children plunged into the surrounding hills to escape the approach of the Bosnian Serb Army (BSA).
Villager Tells of Final March
They have lain here since with no one to bury them or apparently to ask how they died although some among the nearby Serb villagers are willing to talk or guide visitors to the spot an hour's climb away. Milos, 72, said: "They passed by our positions. The first Muslim who surrendered told us that 14,500 had set out from Srebrenica and there were just 500 of us (Serbs) on our line. I told him he must have meant 1,450 but he said no, there were 14,500. People say just 3,000 of the 14,500 got through."
The fall of Srebrenica almost, at the end of the 3½-year Bosnian war, still haunts the conscience of all sides in the conflict, and of the United Nations which stood by and allowed it to happen. Bosnian Serb "president" Radovan Karadzic and BSA commander General Ratko Mladic face war crimes charges as a result of it.
The BSA is accused of having killed 3,000 unarmed Muslim prisoners it took and of bulldozing their bodies into mass graves which war crimes investigators want to excavate. Another 5,000 men from Srebrenica are missing, believed dead.
The people whose exodus ended on the hilltop at Mratinci had left Srebrenica, 15 km (nine miles) to the southeast, on the eve of the final Serb assault, fearing the fate that awaited them if they stayed. They headed at night into rugged, hostile, Serb-held mountain country, toward the Bosnian government refuge of Tuzla 60 km (40 km) to the northwest. Milos said the refugees sent dogs running ahead to test the ground for mines.
Zoran, 45, said they took shelter on the hilltop and added: "Some gave up and some fought on and tried to break through our lines." All the time, according to the accounts, the BSA was pouring mortar fire on the Muslims. The main fighting occurred at 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) on the night of July 12. When it was over an unknown number of Muslims were dead—certainly scores, possibly hundreds—and three Serbs. "We went up there later and took weapons and clothes from the dead," Zoran said. "There were heavy machineguns and mortars."
'Dead People Piled On Top of Each Other'
Another local said: "Those who went later to the hills say there was a lot of new clothing, like at a fair. Our people went up there to collect the stuff. Two tractor loads of weapons were collected." Milos went up the hill three weeks after the killing to see for himself. "You wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it for yourself," he said. "Dead people piled on top of each other."Local people said American NATO peacekeepers who deployed in eastern Bosnia this year have visited the site but took no action to deal with the bodies. Reuters journalists who went to the site on Saturday found it carpeted with human remains, scraps of clothing, personal belongings such as toothbrushes and spent ammunition.
Because many skeletons have been broken up, it was not possible to count the number but local people estimate that 500 died. At least 50 skulls, some with hair still attached glistened in the spring sunshine. Beside a stream was the skeleton of a fully dressed man who looked as if he had been drinking the water when he died. Under a tree were eight other skeletons, one of them curled in a sleeping position.
Littered among them were personal papers including bank cards and passports bearing Muslim names. A letter address to "dear Nina and the rest of my family," said "Just a brief message to you to say that we are alright but that it is more and more difficult to be without you. But all this must end sometime and we shall live together as before. Allah Imanet. All my love, Rasid."
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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