SARAJEVO, April 14 (Reuters) — U.S. aerial surveillance shows suspected mass grave sites in Bosnian Serb territory may have been tampered with last autumn before the deployment of NATO peacekeeping troops, NATO sources said on Sunday. "Whether there was substantial tampering is still a question. But we can say if tampering has taken place it took place before January," said a NATO source.NATO-led peacekeeping troops arrived in Bosnia in December to enforce the Dayton peace accord and had patrols in the vicinity of mass grave sites beginning in January.
The possible tampering would have occurred sometime between September and October, the source said, referring obliquely to evidence from photos from U.S. aircraft monitoring the sites. NATO sources could not say which grave site or sites had been disturbed among the 11 being examined for evidence of the slaughter of Muslim men from the eastern town of Srebrenica.
It was also unclear if there had been a substantial attempt to cover up evidence or move bodies elsewhere, the NATO source said. "Whether there was tampering and the degree of tampering is still in question," he said. NATO officers, embarrassed this month by questions raised about the security of suspected mass grave sites, were keen to emphasise that aerial surveillance showed tampering did not occur under their watch.
A team of investigators from the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague spent the past week visiting suspected grave sites believed to contain the bodies of Muslim men executed by conquering Serb forces. The investigators told U.S. NATO officers they believed at least one site was disturbed sometime in the past several months but have refused to comment on the issue publicly.
NATO troops have been providing security for investigators though alliance commanders have been anxious to limit their role, refusing to allow troops to stand guard over suspected grave sites or hunt down indicted war criminals. The United States released photographs last year which it said indicated the existence of mass graves containing victims from Srebrenica.
Tribunal officials in The Hague have accused Washington in the past of refusing to share intelligence related to the fall of Srebrenica. Apart from extensive aerial surveillance, the United States intercepted radio conversations between Bosnian Serb army officers and authorities in the Serbian capital Belgrade, relief officials say.
International human rights workers say the extent of the slaughter in Srebrenica would make covering up evidence extremely difficult. However tampering might jeopardise evidence that would confirm important testimony from the handful of men who say they witnessed executions.
Some 3,000 captured Muslim men are believed to have been executed by Bosnian Serb troops after they seized the Srebrenica enclave, then a U.N.-declared "safe area," in July 1995. Another 5,000 remain unaccounted for, human rights workers say. Muslim survivors told human rights workers Bosnian Serb army commander General Ratko Mladic was present during the operation.
The Hague tribunal has charged Mladic and Bosnian Serb political chief Radovan Karadzic for crimes against humanity, accusing them of organising the slaughter of Srebrenica Muslims.
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
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