War Crimes Investigators On Scene say
Someone has Tampered with Site
(ZVORNIK, Bosnia-Herzegovina—Reuters) U.N. war crimes investigators said Wednesday they had found human bones at the site of a suspected mass grave in eastern Bosnia where Muslim victims of a Serb massacre are believed to be buried. Reporters saw a rib cage and vertebrae that U.N. investigators said they believed belonged to a human skeleton."What you're going to see are various bone fragments. We have not disturbed any land. We have just photographed the place," said John Gearns, a U.S. forensic specialist in the seven-member team. Next to the rib cage, what appeared to be a human thigh bone was sticking out of the earth. Asked to confirm they were human bones, Gearns said: "I believe so."
U.N. war crimes investigators believe a suspected mass grave in Serb territory in eastern Bosnia has been tampered with over the past three months, United States army officers said on Thursday. "They believe in some way, shape or another (the site) has been disturbed," said Major Daniel Zajac, who commands U.S. NATO troops providing security for the investigators.
"I don't know exactly what they meant by that," Zajac told reporters, adding: "Somehow the site had been disturbed." He could not say whether NATO aerial surveillance had confirmed tampering at the site, which is believed to contain the bodies of Muslim men killed by conquering Serb forces after the fall of the Srebrenica enclave last July. NATO commanders have refused to guard the graves to prevent the Serbs hiding the suspected killing of between 3,000 and 8,000 unarmed Muslim men.
Search for Thousands of Muslim Bodies
The U.N. team descended on parts of eastern Bosnia thought to be littered with makeshift graves into which thousands of Muslims were bulldozed after being executed by separatist Serbs conquering the government enclave of Srebrenica last year. The visit marked the first physical inspection of the area by U.N. war crimes investigators gathering evidence on atrocities committed after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.Reporters watched team members cordon off with yellow tape a muddy field near the village of Oraovac some six miles from the Serb-controlled town of Zvornik on Bosnia's River Drina border with Serbia. The International Committee of the Red Cross says some 3,000 Muslim men last seen in Serb custody are believed to have been killed after Serb forces overran the enclave despite its status as a U.N.-protected "safe area."
Another 5,000 remain unaccounted for and many, if not all, are feared dead in what could amount to the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II. Srebrenica's 30,000 women, children and old people were transported to government-held territory but able-bodied men in the town were separated from their families. Survivors say that Srebrenica Muslim males were taken to a school near the site inspected by U.N. investigators Wednesday where they were blindfolded and then shot to death.
"We are collecting and photographing evidence," Gearns said. Wearing rubber gloves and boots, investigators dug carefully through muck with shovels and picks, placing pieces of clothing and other bits of evidence into plastic bags. They set out at least 50 yellow-numbered markers across the field which they said denoted items of evidence. Troops from the U.S. Army 2nd Brigade were providing security for the investigators, patrolling the area in armored vehicles and tanks while attack helicopters flew overhead.
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
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 YugoslaviaCalTech's Bosnia Site
Six Possible Grave Sites Identified By US Intelligence Agencies The Christian Science Monitor
Exposing Europe's Worst Massacre Since the Holocaust The Christian Science Monitor
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