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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

244 Bodies Found In Cave Near Sarajevo

Associated Press

Bosnian government experts have unearthed 244 war victims from a cave and said Monday they expected to find about 50 more.

The grave, containing bodies of Muslim civilians believed killed by rebel Serbs at the start of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, was discovered last month in a cave near Kljuc, 80 miles northwest of Sarajevo.

“Most of the sites have been located thanks to survivors who were forced to dig the graves,” said Jasmin Odobasic, deputy chief of the Bosnian government’s commission for missing people.

The bodies were dumped in a hole believed to be 80 feet deep. The forensic team has dug to 70 feet in the cave and suspects another 50 bodies might be below, Odobasic said.

The cave was in Bosnian Serb-held territory until late last year when it was recaptured by government forces. The cave’s entrance was blocked with dirt, which made troops who discovered it “immediately suspicious, having in mind the … number of missing people in the area,” Odobasic said.

About 700 people, most of them Muslim, remain missing in the Kljuc region, he said.

The remains of those found were taken to a hall in Kljuc for identification. State-run Bosnian television showed an anguished Ferid Dervisevic identifying the bodies of his wife, Besima; his 5-month-old girl; and his 4-year-old son.

Many other grave sites have been found in the Kljuc area, including one containing 39 bodies, Odobasic said.