Local Justice: Exhumation of New Mass Graves to Begin
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“We have cleared out 10 metres of the pit. Our investigators have gone down 16 metres, but they had to invest huge efforts as they had to dig out hundreds of tyres, dumped stoves and fridges…
“As far as we know the pit is not used as a waste depot, so we can conclude it was deliberately filled with these things,” Lejla Cengic, spokesperson of INO, said.
Cengic explained that INO investigators are searching the pit looking for the remains of two women and three men, who, according to available data, were killed in Kamenica detention camp during the course of the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.
In October 2010 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Dragan Rodic, former guard and guard shift commander, to eight years in prison for crimes committed in the detention camp after Rodic concluded a guilt admission agreement with the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The verdict said that civilians and members of the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, and Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, were detained in Kamenica and the Slavko Rodic school building in Drvar, beaten, tortured and killed.
Ratko Dronjak, former Manager and Commander of Kamenica detention camp and the prison in the Slavko Rodic school building, who was originally charged under the same indictment as Rodic, is on trial before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for allegedly participating in the crime.
“Hundreds of Bosniak civilians from Kljuc, Bihac, Sanski most, Kupres, Livno and the surrounding towns were detained in Kamenica. The Institute’s investigators are searching for the remains of between 50 and 70 victims who were killed in the detention camp,” Cengic said, adding they have so far found skeletal remains of 25 people killed in Kamenica in the Drvar area.
The INO announced that in the coming period its investigators will search other areas as well, looking for remains of war victims.
“There are hundreds of pits in the Drvar area and we shall search a few more. It is certain that exhumations will soon begin in Ostra luka, Prijedor and Sanski most, as we have already received or are awaiting exhumation orders,” Cengic announced.
Dz.S.
