Bosnia’s Biggest Mass Grave Raises Justice Hopes

Mirsad Duratovic from Prijedor received a telephone call last month that confirmed what he had suspected for more than 20 years: some of his relatives who disappeared during the war had been buried in unmarked land not far away.

Investigators who are exhuming a mass grave, which was discovered last summer at a mine in the village of Tomasica in north-west Bosnia, have unearthed the remains of hundreds of bodies of Bosniaks and Croats killed by Bosnian Serb forces during their ethnic cleansing campaign in 1992.

Last month, the first DNA matches and forensic findings were completed, and relatives like Duratovic were contacted and informed that the remains of their loved ones had been found.

“The first DNA results to arrive were for my uncles Esref Duratovic and Eniz Aleskovic. Eniz disappeared from the [Bosnian Serbs’] Keraterm [detention] camp. I have learned that he was taken from the camp and killed at the Tomasica grave site and buried there, and Esref was killed in front of our family home and his body was taken away by buses, and I saw this,” said Duratovic.

Duratovic is hoping that among the hundreds of as yet unidentified bodies found at Tomasica, the remains of his father, brother, grandparents and several other relatives will be identified.

“I am still waiting, there are so many members of my family still missing, but all the DNA results have not been completed, so there is hope,” he said.

The Tomasica grave is yielding evidence which could strengthen the prosecutions of alleged mass killers, both in Bosnian courts and at the international court in The Hague.

“We have found 435 victims, and of this number, 275 were complete bodies,” said Lejla Cengic, spokesperson for the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Although the exact causes of their deaths have not yet been determined, some crucial facts have already been established which have been passed on to prosecutors.

“The DNA matches have revealed the identity of victims and we have found numerous personal artefacts which allowed us to conclude that these were Bosniak and Croat civilians. The majority of identified victims were killed in the Prijedor villages of Biscani, Rizvanovici, Sredice and Carakovo, and some were killed in the Keraterm [detention] camp,” said Cengic.

“The DNA matches will be forwarded to the prosecutor and medical expert for analysis in order to complete the identification process. We expect that all of this will be finished soon,” she said.

The mass grave was found after a former Bosnian Serb Army serviceman provided information which led the authorities to the Tomasica site.

Victims’ groups hope that its forensic evidence will be used to speed up prosecutions and punish the perpetrators of the ethnic cleansing that took place in northern Bosnia during wartime.

So far, the Hague Tribunal and the Bosnian state court have jailed several people for crimes against Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats in Prijedor, which was a Serb stronghold during wartime.

According to the verdicts, thousands of non-Serb civilians were held in the Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje detention camps, where many were subjected to beatings, rape, sexual assaults, torture and executions. More than 1,500 people were killed in the Prijedor area.

Former Bosnian Serb military and political leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are on trial for genocide in various municipalities including Prijedor in 1992, among other alleged crimes.

The Prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague has already announced that forensics from Tomasica will be used as evidence at Mladic’s trial.

“It is evident that the mass grave might contain evidence about crimes committed in the Prijedor area during the period covered by the indictment raised against Mladic which might be relevant in proving the 1992 genocide in the municipalities,” said Ljiljana Pitesa, senior information assistant at the Hague prosecution.

Duratovic said that his uncle’s DNA match was one of the first to be completed after the Hague prosecution requested “expedited results” to use at Mladic’s trial.

“I have mixed feelings about this. I am sad obviously, but I also feel a sense of pride – if we can even call it that – that the mortal remains of my family will be a part of the process,” he explained.

“I hope that the evidence will help prove the existence of genocide in Prijedor. I am pleased that Esref’s name will be mentioned in the case against Mladic. I am only sad that I won’t be able to come and testify and explain who he was and how he died,” he added.

The exhumation at the Tomasica mine will resume in the spring, and there is also evidence that there could be an additional, smaller grave nearby – offering hope of yet more new evidence to help prosecute suspects, and more information for people like Duratovic, who have waited for news of their relatives’ fate for more than two decades.