(10 Jul 1996) English/Nat
Forensic experts in Bosnia continue to dig up bodies of suspected victims of war crimes.
U-N investigators digging into a mass grave on Wednesday exposed the remains of a further 20 people, believed to be Bosnian Moslems killed by Serb forces in the Srebrenica area a year ago.
Another team to the west of Sarajevo has exhumed more than 28 bodies over the past three days.
But a U-N group working in a Serbian controlled area near Srebrenica was driven out before completing their excavation.
The International Criminal Tribunal on former Yugoslavia in The Hague is striving to learn the full truth of the Srebrenica carnage.
It sent this team into Serb-controlled eastern Bosnia last weekend to start exhuming suspected mass graves over the next few weeks.
Digging into this mass grave on Wednesday, they exposed the contorted remains of up to 20 people, believed to be Bosnian Moslems killed by Serb forces in the Srebrenica area a year ago.
The team leader says at least 15 to 20 sets of human remains had been uncovered so far.
SOUNDBITE:
"Just now, opening up the grave and looking at... we're seeing boots, we're seeing sweaters, we're seeing hands , we're seeing feet, we're seeing people. (Q: Any uniforms?) I've not seen any uniforms. No."
SUPER CAPTION: William Haglund, team leader
U-N war crimes prosecutors say at least 3-thousand unarmed Moslem men, and possibly as many as 8-thousand, were shot after capture or mown down in ambushes as they fled to Bosnian government territory.
The Cerska exhumation, on a forest embankment off a dirt road about 35 kilometres (22 miles) west of Srebrenica, is expected to last another several days.
Forensic experts are also continuing their examination of three suspected mass graves in the area of Vogosca, 12 kilometres (8 miles) west of Sarajevo.
The examination started on Monday and 13 bodies had been found by Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, 15 more bodies were exhumed in the nearby village of Svrake.
The mass graves are located in Muslim cemeteries where the bodies were allegedly dumped by Bosnian Serb soldiers after they were either shot or clubbed to death.
Many villagers came to watch the exhumations.
They fear the bodies may be those of their missing loved ones.
In eastern Bosnia, Finnish forensic experts have been forced to abort their excavation of a mass grave because Bosnian Serbs blocked their work.
The U-N condemned the attitude of the Bosnian Serbs.
SOUNDBITE:
"Because of the obstructionist attitude of the Republic of Srpska authorities the team left the Republic of Srpska yesterday evening. All the promises, guarantees that were given, surprise, surprise, did not materialize on the ground."
SUPER CAPTION: Alexander Ivanko, spokesman for U.N. civilian police in Bosnia
The U-N says Bosnian Serbs failed to keep promises to provide security in the Serb-held territory.
The Finnish team arrived in Bosnia last week and started excavating bodies from a mass grave at Kravice.
But the U-N said the work would be too dangerous without the guarantee of safety, and so the humanitarian work has been halted.
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