01/11/2013 18:07
Hundreds of bodies found in Bosnia mass grave
Investigators in Bosnia have uncovered a mass grave thought to contain several hundred bodies of victims of the conflict that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia two decades ago, CNN reported.
The remains are believed to be those of victims of Bosniak and Croat ethnicity from Prijedor and its surroundings, killed in the summer of 1992, according to the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The site, at Tomasica in Prijedor municipality, is one of the biggest mass graves found in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the conflict, said Boris Grubesic, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.
As of Thursday, 231 complete bodies had been exhumed, as well as the body parts of another 112 people.
But, he added, the number found goes up by the day or even the hour.
More than 30 personal items have also been found, he said.
Excavation of the mass grave, which goes to a depth of 10 meters (33 feet), began in early September and is expected to continue into next week.
The remains are being taken to an identification center in Sanski Most, where they will remain until the forensic analysis and identification process is completed, the prosecutor's office said.
Representatives of the International Commission on Missing Persons, the interior ministry for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the prosecutor's office are present for the dig, as well as an expert forensic pathologist.