29 November, 2008

933 BODY REMAINS OF SREBRENICA GENOCIDE VICTIMS EXHUMED FROM KAMENICA MASS GRAVES "11" & "12"

Federal News Agency (FENA) reported that expert team of the Institute for Missing Persons in Tuzla (ICMP) exhumed 50 complete and 883 partial human remains of Srebrenica genocide victims from mass graves "Kamenica 11" and "Kamenica 12."

PHOTO: A forensic expert, a member of the International Commission for Missing Persons ICMP, marks body parts of Srebrenica genocide victims before excavation at a mass-grave site in the remote mountain area in the village of Kamenica near the Eastern-Bosnian town of Zvornik and some 30km away from Srebrenica (November 200.


Murat Husic, head of the expert team, confirmed these are remains of Srebrenica Bosniaks killed in July 1995. Mass graves also contained victims´ personal belongings. All remains will undergo DNA identification process. According to the number of revealed victims’ remains, these are the largest mass graves recovered in Podrinje. Exhumation from mass grave “Kamenica 11” shall continue while “Kamenica 12” will be closed.

The 1995 Srebrenica genocide claimed lives of 8,000 - 10,000 Bosniaks - men, children, and elderly. More than 4,000 bodies of Srebrenica genocide victims have so far been exhumed from 12 mass graves along the 7-mile road from Srebrenica to the village of Kamenica. The area is more commonly known as "Death Valley."



Kamenica is also the place of the largest mass grave found to date. In August 2006, the bodies of more than 1,000 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide had been exhumed from Kamenica. At that time, the team had exhumed 144 complete and 1,009 partial skeletons. The remains were heavily damaged, a typical feature of "secondary" mass graves to which victims´ bodies are moved from an original burial site in an attempt to hide a crime. The excavation team found bullets mixed with body parts, and plastic and cloth bindings around the victims´ arms. Much of the moving was done with bulldozers, which complicates the identification process.

PHOTO: Forensic worker, a member of International Commission for Missing Persons ICMP, shows a pocket watch found on a body of a Srebrenica genocide victim at a mass-grave site in the remote mountain area in the village of Kamenica near the Eastern-Bosnian town of Zvornik (November 200.


As a result, thousands of bodies still await DNA-identification process run by the International Commission on Missing Persons. According to the director general of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Kathryne Bomberger, DNA confirmed at least 8,000 Srebrenica genocide victims (interview).


more photo [url http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/

[Edited by cupo on 01-12-2008 at 18:28 GMT]

02.12.2008

Nastavljene ekshumacije iz Kamenice 11

Tuzlanski odjel Instituta za traženje nestalih BiH, pod vodstvom tužiteljstva tod kantona i dalje vrši ekshumacije iz sekundarne masovne grobnice Kamenica 11 u blizini Zvornika.

"S obzirom da se radovi se odvijaju u otežanim uvjetima i da se skeletni ostaci vade iz gline i blata, pretpostavlja se da će ekshumacije trajati još sedam dana", saopštila je glasnogovornica Tužiteljstva Tuzlanskog kantona Jasna Subotić.

Danas je iz grobnice ekshumirano jedno kompletno i 38 nekompletnih tijela, a ukupno od početka ekshumacije, uključujući i današnji dan 27 kompletnih i 751 nekompletno tijelo. U grobnici je do sada pronađeno i 24 predmeta među kojima su povezi, zrna, dokumenti, nakit i itd.

(FENA)

5,800 VICTIMS DNA IDENTIFIED

About 5,800 victims of Srebrenica Genocide have been identified through DNA analysis, but they can be reburied only after 70 percent of the bodily remains have been identified. Bosnian Serbs first buried the bodies near the execution sites but then dug out many of them with bulldozers and reburied remains in secondary mass graves in an attempt to hide the crime.



Skeleton remains are marked as forensic experts of the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) search for human remains in a mass grave in the village of Kamenica in the Serb controlled part of the country December 2, 2008. Forensic experts said on Tuesday they unearthed about 1000 skeleton remains of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide victims from the 12th mass grave found in the eastern Bosnian village of Kamenica. We covered this story on November 28 (see photos), and we have more grim updates from Reuters as excavations continue.

"Experts had hoped to complete the exhumations on Wednesday but say the work which started two months ago will finish next week," Reuters reported on December 3rd. Documents recovered from the grave showed the victims were from Srebrenica, forensic experts said (see photos of victims´ personal belongings).

"Almost 90 percent of all remains had traces of bullet shots and some victims were blindfolded with rope-tied hands," said Vedo Tuco, forensic pathologist. "Some of the remains were of 14-to-15-year-old boys. The victims were killed at three locations near Srebrenica and transferred to the village of Kamenica from the original graves three months after the execution... There is a complete chaos in this mass grave. Some of the remains that we found here will probably be re-associated with the bodies that we had exhumed from other mass graves discovered in this village... They probably thought that nobody would ever return here and discover the crime," he added.

According to Reuters, about 5,800 victims of Europe´s worst atrocity since World War Two have been identified through DNA analysis but they can be reburied only after 70 percent of the bodily remains have been identified. Bosnian Serbs first buried the bodies near the execution sites but then dug out many of them with bulldozers and reburied them in "secondary" mass graves in an attempt to hide the crime. Another mass grave has been located in the village but digging will likely start in the spring because of bad winter weather.

"Wherever I go the bones are being dug out and I cannot escape a smell of decaying bodies. This really is a Death Valley," Camila Mehmedovic, 61, told Reuters. "If I knew it would be like this, I would have never returned."



PHOTO UP: A Bosnian Muslim woman, Camila Mehmedovic (61), is a rare villager who returned to Kamenica after the war, mowed grass for her sheep from a nearby field before she learned there was a mass grave below. She gets clean water from a pipe in front of houses destroyed from the war in the Serb controlled part of the country December 2, 2008.



PHOTO UP: A forensic expert of the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) holds remains of a Srebrenica genocide victim in a mass grave in the village of Kamenica in the Serb controlled part of the country December 2, 2008.



PHOTO UP: Bosnian man who is a local resident with his home near to the mass grave site, reacts while forensic experts in background inspect human remains at a mass-grave site in remote mountain area in the village of Kamenica near Eastern-Bosnian town of Zvornik, 80 kms north east of Sarajevo, Bosnia, on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008. The mass grave is considered to be a secondary mass-grave, where bodies of Srebrenica genocide victims were moved to from another original site.


http://srebrenica-genocide.blogspot.com/

09.12.2008

Zvornik / Kamenica

Podignuta posljednja tijela iz Kamenice 11

Nakon dva mjeseca rada eksperti Tuzlanskog odjela Instituta za traženje nestalih Bosne i Hercegovine pod vodstvom Tužiteljstva Tuzlanskog kantona, danas su iz sekundarne masovne grobnice Kamenica 11 kod Zvornika podigli posljednje skeletne ostatke Srebreničana ubijenih srpnja 1995. godine.
"Ekshumacija je počela 8. listopada i tek nakon puna dva mjeseca ekspertni tim uspio je podići sva tijela iz grobnice. U grobnici je pronađeno 30 kompletnih, 851 nekompletno tijelo, 19 vreća sitnih kostiju i 22 predmeta“, kazala je glasnogovornica Tužiteljstva Jasna Subotić, dodavši da sutra slijedi zatrpavanje grobnice.

Posmrtni ostaci bit će prevezeni u Komemorativni centar u Tuzli na obradu, nakon čega će uslijediti identifikacija.

(FENA)