News

Bosnia Exhumes Five War Victims’ Remains Near Visegrad

20. October 2023.15:49
The remains of at least five people who disappeared during the 1990s war have been found at a grave site in Okolista in the Visegrad municipality of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This post is also available in: Bosnian

The exhumation at Okolista. Photo: Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Bosnian state prosecution said in statement that an exhumation is continuing on Monday at a grave site in Okolista, a village by the Drina river near the city of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia, after the remains of at least five war victims were found there.

A forensic pathologist, a representative of the Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons and officers from the State Investigation and Protection Agency are at the scene of the exhumation, and the location is being secured by police officers from Visegrad.

After the exhumation, the remains will be transferred to the Miljevici City Cemetery in East Sarajevo for forensic processing and identification through DNA analysis.

Emza Fazlic, spokesperson for the Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons, said the DNA analysis will determine the ethnicity of the victims.

“What can be said for sure is that these are victims who disappeared in that area in 1992,” said Fazlic.

“Some clothes were also found with the victims, and according to the pathologist at the exhumation site, they are the remains of women,” she added.

The Visegrad municipality lies in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska entity. Many war crimes were committed in the area in 1992, including killings and the widespread ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks.

Aida Trepanić


This post is also available in: Bosnian