Posted on 06/23/2004 6:31:59 PM PDT by mark502inf
While four police directed traffic, about 20 officials and journalists peered over a rusty guardrail on the side of the two-lane road that winds towards Bratunac, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Below, half a dozen men were digging in the muddy ground of the roadside ravine with pickaxes and spades.
Workers said they expect to find about 15 bodies here in the reddish mud -- bodies of civilians killed during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which Bosnian Serb forces killed up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys after over-running what had been a UN-declared "safe area".
This grave is one of 32 that the Republika Srpska (RS) authorities acknowledged recently, following pressure from the international community. At the same time, authorities acknowledged in a report, released on 11 June, that Serb military and police had "liquidated" Muslims and committed other large-scale human rights violations after taking the area in July 1995.
Such acknowledgements, after nine years of RS authorities feigning ignorance, are a watershed, said Gordon Bacon, head of the International Commission for Missing Persons, which identifies victims by matching DNA samples from bodies found in mass graves to blood samples from surviving relatives.
"This shows that there is information there, and it’s been there a long time," he said. "But instead of looking at the negatives -- they should have given it to us earlier, let’s look at the positives -- they have given it now."
This was a primary grave, but officials say that the majority of the graves are so-called secondary and tertiary graves -- where the initial site was dug up and reburied in secret, second and third locations.
Until recently, the Federation Missing Persons Commission had received grave information only from survivors or from the UN war crimes tribunal.
"Without that information, we either wouldn't know the locations or it couldn’t be confirmed," said Amor Masovic, chairman of the commission. "In some cases, we know the location, but when information comes from another source, then we can think of it as a place we can send our teams to do our work. Without that information, my commission couldn’t work."
It is hoped that the new grave locations will mean that the fate of those still missing since the massacre will finally be known. About 4,500 have been exhumed, and 1,373 have been identified. About 1,000 of the identified have been buried at a memorial site outside of Srebrenica.
Gravesites like this are also considered crime scenes. After the exhumation, bodies will be autopsied. After they're identified, war crimes cases can be prosecuted locally under the "Rules of the Road", in which The Hague war crimes tribunal approves evidence gathered by local prosecutors before the prosecutors can issue warrants and take the cases to court.
"Using these bodies we’ll be able to determine what happened," said Tuzla prosecutor Emir Ibrahimovic. "That will be our proof of a crime, because when we confirm the identity, we can find an acquaintance or family member who knows when was the last time that person was seen."
The same technique worked pretty well for the Serbs in both Bosnia and Kosovo. Its been nine years since the Srebrenica massacre. And although the Kosovo conflict was five years ago, the Serbs are still in the process of returning the murdered Albanians they hid in Serbia proper. Milosevic's buddy Hussein had it much easier hiding a few WMD, but we'll eventually find those, too.
BANJALUKA -- Wednesday – Republic of Srpska President Dragan Cavic said today in a statement to the Commission for Incidents in Srebrenica that war crimes were committed by the Serbian military in Srebrenica in July of 1995.
Cavic said that there is no forgiving those people who committed these war crimes and that the period between July 10 and 19, 1995 will forever be a dark page in the history of the Serbian people.
"Those who committed these crimes in the name of their country or in the name of God have shamed both members of their nationality and their religion." said Covic in a television interview addressing the public.
Still looking for evidence of the U.N. reported 10s of thousands of murders. We already know the U.N. is a master of the lie.
"In a related story: Democrat Get-Out-The-Vote effort moves to Bosnia..."
Balkans Bump!
.../disbelief.
I beg to differ. Various people have made high claims, but specific estimates have never reached into the tens of thousands. At the end of the conflict, the final authoritative estimate was made by British Foreign Office Minister Geoff Hoon, who stated that around 10,000 ethnic Albanians had been killed.
Not from the UN:
This grave is one of 32 that the Republika Srpska (RS) authorities acknowledged recently
You could draw a parallel to our bombing of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki as war crimes. What's the difference from knowingly killing civilians at 20,000 feet as opposed to killing them up close for supporting a known enemy? Tough call. However, I'm proud to know that the US makes every attempt to spare non-combatants, when possible.
First off, EXPECT doesn't mean they've actually even found any. Then, there's IDENTIFICATION. Finally, they are claiming the bodies are civilians when other propaganda on this claims they are SOLDIERS. This is a propaganda piece. Much sensationalism, but NO IDENTITIES AND AUTOPSY REPORTS.
If they waited until identifications and autopsies they'd never have even one story. Meanwhile Serbs have been identified and autopsied with the name of the doctor who performed the autopsy, yet those stories don't make the news.
They have a dozen men digging in mud and all sorts of ominous speculation, the hallmark of propaganda.
So, prove there is a Muslim body found in this story. Give a name?
Very interesting that they do not say identified as who Were they Serbs or foreign Mujaheddin? Were they killed or died out of natural casues? Why this secrecy?
You may want to look at this photo.
Pure Bosnian Muslim Jihaadist/terrorist b/s propaganda.
The Serbs have found mass graves of Serbs and have identified nearly them all - for example, in Mrkonjic Grad in Bosnia which the Croat military held for awhile - yet the press didn't report that, much less speculate already when any digging was started. There were about 180 Serbs killed there, most without any identity papers and many even without their shoes, yet almost all were identified.
How this "estimate" can be "final authoritative" one if it is made by the side in the war? Even with NATO bombing the number of Serbs and Albanians killed in Kosovo was smaller. And last but not the least there were few Albanians around Srebrenica (which is not in Kosovo).
That's alleged to be in Serbia. You have the names of those there? I didn't think so.
I always side with those who are forced to fight the Mohammedan Jihad.
I never bet on black. Muslims have the black flag. I never bet on Muslims and I never am stupid enough to back their cause. Go do a google search.
I looked and it seems likely that they are bodies of Serbs. Your point is?
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