Bodies May Be Part Of Bosnian Mass Grave Six Civilian Bodies Discovered

U.N. war crimes investigators on Wednesday uncovered the bodies of six civilians who apparently were executed and dumped in a field where American officials have said as many as 2,700 people may be buried.

“Basically, what we have here is a minimum of six bodies, one with hands bound with wire, the other with a shoe string,” said American forensics specialist John Gerns. All the bodies were in civilian clothing.

The bodies were in various stages of decomposition and Gerns would not speculate on how long they had been buried. But at least one still had large amounts of tissue, indicating it could have been buried within the past year.

Last July, more than 7,000 Muslim men disappeared from the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica after the area was captured by Bosnian Serbs. Survivors say the Serbs gathered the men, mowed them down, and buried their bodies at places like this.

U.S. spy photos have indicated mass graves around Nova Kasaba, about 12 miles northwest of Srebrenica. Madeleine Albright, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the U.N. Security Council in August that as many as 2,700 people might be buried there.

Gerns and his team, who will report to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, were drawn to the site Wednesday by the smell of decomposing flesh.

They unearthed a small hole and found six bodies that appeared to have been dumped haphazardly upon each other. Bone fragments sticking out of one wall of the hole indicated it was on the edge of a larger grave that investigators suspect may be more than 20 feet wide.

“Based upon what we have so far, there are more bodies underneath,” Gerns said.

The grave was located on the edge of an embankment overlooking the Ljesina River as it intersects with the larger Jadar. A large field facing the site was covered with thick underbrush.

As the investigators dug at the earth under a blazing noonday sun, farmers cleared adjacent fields and led their cows and horses to the river. Locals say human remains are scattered everywhere across the region.

Two dozen U.S. Army soldiers stood watch over the investigators. Maj. Daniel L. Zajak of the U.S. Army 2nd Brigade said they could call in anything up to an airstrike to protect them, but no one interfered.