Bosnian forensic teams have exhumed 59 bodies including 18 children, believed to be Serb civilians, from a mass grave in the north-east of the country, a forensic expert said on Wednesday.
”Fifty-nine skeletons, including 18 children aged between five and 17, were exhumed in a mass grave in the village of Sijekovac near Srpski Brod,” said Bosnian Serb Commission for Missing People chief Aleksandar Radeta.
”The mass grave was found in a Muslim graveyard in Sijekovac and the victims were believed to have been killed in the period between April and November 1992.
”Only DNA analysis can help identification. Initially it was believed that they were Muslim victims but when the exhumation started it was found that they were Serb civilians.”
So far about 18 000 bodies have been exhumed from more than 300 mass graves throughout the country, most of them Muslims, according to forensic teams.
Bosnia’s 1992 to 1995 war claimed about 200 000 lives and left 2,2-million refugees, more than half of the country’s population. About 25 000 people are still reported missing. — Sapa-AFP