Bosnia unearths remains of 1995 Srebrenica genocide victim

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Bosnia Herzegovina on Wednesday unearthed remains of a victim from the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica.

The Institute for Missing Persons said that the remains were found in the garden of a house in the city of Brcko, located in the northeast of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“The remains were moved to Brcko immediately after the war and the bones were most likely buried and hidden under the pool in the garden of a house by the property owner in 2012. An investigation has also been launched into the matter,” the institute said in a statement.

The bone remains will be delivered to the forensic medicine center in the city of Tuzla for necessary examinations and DNA analysis.

After completing the necessary analysis, the remains will be prepared for a collective funeral at Srebrenica Memorial Center.

Last week, Bosnian police arrested five former Serb troops suspected of participating in the 1995 genocide in Srebrenica.

More than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed when Bosnian Serb forces attacked the eastern town of Srebrenica in July 1995, despite the presence of Dutch peacekeeping troops.

The Serb forces were trying to wrest territory from Bosnian Muslims and Croats to form a state.

The UN Security Council had declared Srebrenica a "safe area" in the spring of 1993. However, troops led by Gen. Ratko Mladic, who was later found guilty of war crimes, and crimes against humanity and genocide, overran the UN zone.

Dutch troops failed to act as Serb forces occupied the area, killing some 2,000 men and boys on July 11 alone.

Around 15,000 residents of Srebrenica fled to the surrounding mountains, but Serb troops hunted down and killed 6,000 more people.

The bodies of victims have been found from 570 places across the country.

In 2007, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that genocide had been committed in Srebrenica.

On June 8, 2021, UN tribunal judges upheld in a second-instance trial a verdict sentencing Mladic to life in prison for the genocide, persecution, crimes against humanity, extermination and other war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina.