Srebrenica Mass Grave

Yesterday was the twelve-year anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, in which Serb forces killed between 7000 and 8000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. Bosnian organizations are still finding the remains in mass graves. So far, about 5,500 victims have been identified. The job of finding and identifying victims has been especially difficult because after the massacres, Serb forces dismembered most of the bodies and transported the body parts to different areas. Every year, there is a large funeral in Potocari, the area near Srebrenica where the victims are buried after they are found and identified, for all the new victims found that year. This year at the funeral, 456 new victims were buried.

A national organization that is dedicated to finding all the missing persons from the war recently uncovered a new mass grave in Srebrenica. I attended the exhumation yesterday, and then went to Potocari for the funeral. There are not words adequate to describe it, so i am not going to try. I had a conversation with a Bosnian colleague before i went. I had not been planning to take photos because it seemed intrusive, but she told me that alot of Bosnians feel it is very important for anyone that can to visit and take photos, and show them to as many people as possible, so people can see the reality of hatred, and be motivated to stop such atrocities in the future. So, i took photos of the mass grave, and some of the funeral. I could not take photos of the women crying though.




This building was on the outskirts of Srebrenica. After Serb forces began rounding up the Bosnian men and boys, they were sheltered here for a while. Some were killed inside, and some were taken to other locations where they were killed.














Pointing to "mass grave"















The team of excavators.


















Here is the mass grave. It is known as a "secondary mass grave" because Serb soldiers moved the bodies here from the original mass grave. It contains the remains of only about 45 victims.



















I will post information about the services in Potocari tomorrow.