BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: EXCAVATIONS BEGIN AT THE SITE OF THE SUSPECTED MASS GRAVES OF MOSLEMS BELIEVED KILLED BY BOSNIAN SERB FORCES.

Record ID: 639672

  • Title: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: EXCAVATIONS BEGIN AT THE SITE OF THE SUSPECTED MASS GRAVES OF MOSLEMS BELIEVED KILLED BY BOSNIAN SERB FORCES.
  • Date: 7th July 1996
  • Summary: HASONOVICI, BOSNIA (JULY 7, 1996)(RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV CONVOY ON THE MOVE INCLUDING U.S. ARMY HUMVEE VEHICLES (2 SHOTS) 0.17 2. MV GRAVES SITE (2 SHOTS) 0.24 3. MV IFOR SOLDIERS SECURING THE SITE/ CLEARING SITE 0.31 4. MV INVESTIGATING TEAM USING METAL DETECTORS (3 SHOTS) 0.52 5. FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGIST WILLIAM HAGLUND SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 1.19 6. MV VARIOUS OF LOCAL BOSNIAN CIVILIANS UNLOADING WHEELBARROWS TO BE USED / FROM TRUCK (3 SHOTS) 1.53 7. MV BULLDOZERS CLEARING SITE (2 SHOTS) 2.12 8. MV INVESTIGATORS MARKING THE AREA OF THE SITE 2.19 9. SLV IFOR SOLDIERS ON GUARD 2.24 10.MV INVESTIGATORS BEGIN EXCAVATION 2.26 TRANSCRIPT SEQ 5. HAGLUND: "PHOTOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTATION AND VIDEO DOCUMENTATION OF THE SITE, THE AREA WHERE IT IS AT, WHAT WE SEE, THE USE OF METAL DETECTORS, THE DEMINING EFFORT TO SECURE THE SITE MAKE IT SAFER AND WE WILL THEN APPROACH THE GRAVE ITSELF AND DETERMINE HOW WE ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO EXCAVATE THE GRAVE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: HASONOVICI, NEAR SREBRENICA, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
  • City:
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Reuters ID: LVA37BHG8YM42G59C5AXM33X1RW0
  • Story Text: INTRO: War crimes investigators began on Sunday to excavate the suspected mass graves of Moslems believed killed by Bosnian Serb forces.

    --------------------------------------------------------------- War crimes investigators on Sunday (July 7) arrived at the site of a suspected mass grave of Moslems believed to have been slaughtered by Serb forces in eastern Bosnia.

    The war crimes team started marking off the site, called Hasonovici, on a dirt road in a mountain forest roughly 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Srebrenica.

    Digging will start later in the day. Exploratory digging has already been done at the site.

    U.S. troops backed by Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees equipped with machineguns stood guard in case of threats from local Serbs, opposed to the excavation in order to protect their leaders.

    A U.N. tribunal has indicted Serb army commander General Ratko Mladic and Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic for genocide, but both remain at large.

    The 20-strong U.N. team has a seven-tonne backhoe digger, the first time they have used heavy earth-moving equipment.

    Also with them are a dozen or so locally hired Serb workers equipped with shovels and wheelbarrows.

    Late in May, a small team partially excavated three trenches which revealed human remains in each case.

    Forensic anthropologist William Haglund this team was using photographic and video documentation of the site. They were using metal detectors as part of an effort to make sure the site was safe and free of mines, and then they would approach the grave.

    The U.N. experts, trying to learn the full dimensions of what may have been Europe's worst war atrocity since the Nazi Holocaust, expected its gruelling and grisly work starting later on Sunday will take several weeks.

    At least 3,000, and possibly as many as 8,000, mostly unarmed Moslems were believed to have been killed after nationalist Bosnian Serb forces overran Srebrenica, a supposed U.N. "safe area" in eastern Bosnia, a year ago.

    Survivors, testifying at the International Criminal Tribunal on former Yugoslavia in The Hague, have said Mladic was at the scene of the alleged mass shootings.


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