Posted on 05/14/2007 6:15:36 AM PDT by mile
Newsweek
Bosnia: Digging Up the Secrets of the Dead
By Ginanne Brownell
Web Exclusive
May 11, 2007
The genocidal massacres of Srebrenica took place more than a decade ago, but Kathryne Bomberger relives them every day. As the director general of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Bomberger spends a good portion of her days visiting mass graves. Another grim stop: the Podrinje Identification Project (PIP) in Tuzla, Bosnia. Specially built to house recovered remains of Srebrenica victims, it is filled from floor to ceiling with body bags and thousands of bones.
There are also poignant personal items like clothing, photos and, in one instance, a handwritten German-Bosnian dictionary. Bosnian and international anthropologists and archaeologists extract DNA and use ante-mortem reports from family members to identify which skull goes with which arm. It’s a painstakingly long process—and one that Bomberger says is only half done. For the ICMP, Srebrenica is only one part of a story of missing people across the globe—the organization has used its specialized technology to identify remains from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Bomberger, who hails from the U.S. state of Virginia, spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Ginanne Brownell from the ICMP headquarters in Sarajevo about how far the group's work has come and how far it still has to go.
NEWSWEEK: There has always been controversy about just how many people have gone missing in the Balkans. What are the numbers according to your DNA findings?
Kathryne Bomberger: From the region there were 40,000 missing overall, which includes Croatia and Kosovo. Of that number, about 30,000 were missing from Bosnia. We can for the first time say that the 8,000—maybe more but certainly not less—missing from Srebrenica is accurate.
Read more
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
[”Still bent out of shape...”]
No, and I never was [bent out of shape]. But, if I do, I’ll let you know.
“Does anyone remember when a certain [individual who] was crowing about how it would be an interesting January [2007] in regards to Kosovo’s final status?
Since it is now April [2007] and the international community continues to recognize Kosovo as a province of Serbia, we should take time to note that he is wrong, wrong, wrong once again!”
Now, is that you being referenced Hoplite?...my memory falls short.
Your words were being either taken out of context or exaggerated (by someone else other that you).
Would I be correct?
Your response will clear up this situation.
Either is good with me.
[”or go pound sand.”]
The quintessence of immaturity, Hoplite.
Why don’t you - oh the Skeptical One - enlighten us with the information you have on identified victims of Srebrenica genocide then? I imagine you have more information than this international, intergovernmental commission identifying them.
And, OMG, how come all former Yugoslavia related threads always end up hijacked by pro-and-con Kosovo independence opinions. Please vent your Kosovo frustrations elsewhere and stick to the topic. Thanks.
AS for the hijacking of threads....you must be having nightmares yourself. Furthermore, I’ll stick to whatever related topic I like bozo.
You caught Hoplite at a disadvantage, he doesn’t have enough fingers to perform the calculation.
My hijacking of threads comment was a general one, not aimed at you.
My hijacking of threads comment was a general one, not aimed at you.
It’s pretty obvious what you were implying. But...
who cares what you think about any thread.
Ok, so the sound of him dropping his trousers was because he needed to count to 21...got it.
In that scenario he would be subtracting 1.
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