Bosnians Begin to ID 274 Found in Mass Grave
Bosnian experts and relatives of 274 Muslims killed early in the Bosnian war and buried in the biggest mass grave yet discovered in the country began identification of the victims Monday.
Hundreds of family members gathered in front of the morgue in this northern Bosnian town, hoping to find evidence that their loved ones were among those exhumed earlier this month from the mass grave near the village of Glumina in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
They walked slowly among the remains, some of them crying.
The grave lies near the town of Zvornik on the Yugoslav border.
The victims are thought to be from Zvornik and nearby villages--an area where Bosnian Serb forces pursued a brutal campaign of “ethnic cleansing,” expelling or killing Muslims living there, early in the 1992-95 war.
Bosnian television said 45 victims had been identified.
After the first phase of the identification process--involving victims’ relatives--is completed, court experts will carry out an autopsy of the bodies.
Most victims were packed in plastic bags bearing the insignia of the JNA, the Yugoslav People’s Army.
The biggest mass grave found previously, near the town of Kljuc in northwest Bosnia, contained 188 bodies, also Muslims.
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