"DEATH VALLEY" OF SREBRENICA YIELDS 616 MORE CORPSES

MORE VICTIMS OF SREBRENICA GENOCIDE EXCAVATED

Photo Caption: Forensic expert Rene Kosalka of Toronto, Canada, member of team from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) inspects human remains at a mass-grave site in remote mountain area in the village of Kamenica B&H, on Friday, Nov. 16, 2007. The site is a secondary mass graves found in Kamenica, where Bosnian Serbs brought bodies from other sites in order to cover up the crime.

Forensic experts have unearthed the remains of 616 more Bosniak victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide from a mass grave, the biggest such site found this year. The village of Kamenica lies in an area nicknamed "Death Valley". Nine graves have been found there, containing remains of many of the 8,000 men and boys killed by Bosnian Serb forces as they fled Srebrenica in the last months of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Nearly 3,600 complete and incomplete bodies of Srebrenica victims have so far been exhumed from 10 mass graves in the Kamenica valley. This brings the total number of exhumed bodies to over 4,200 just from the "Death Valley" area alone.

Experts believe there are more such graves in the Kamenica area. Last year, another grave in the valley yielded more than 1,000 body parts, making it the biggest such site in Bosnia.

Forensic experts also announced the possibility of opening a new mass grave at another location in Kamenica soon.

Photo Caption: Forensic expert Rene Kosalka of Toronto, Canada, a member of team from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) inspects human remains at a mass-grave site in remote mountain area in the village of Kamenica.

"We found 76 complete and 540 incomplete bodies," said Ismet Musić, an official of the regional commission for missing persons, standing on the edge of a muddy grave where white-clad forensic pathologists cleaned up bones.

Some bodies are very well preserved due to an extraordinary microclimate in the grave. Musić said some faces were almost intact, with eyes staring wide open.

"It was quite a creepy sight," he said.

A total 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed after the town was overrun by the Bosnian Serbs despite having been declared a "safe area" where United Nations troops had been stationed.

Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, indicted for genocide over the atrocity, is still on the run.

Documents found at the newly-excavated site and on many of the bodies reveal their identities. Bodies have been unearthed with eyes blindfolded, hands bound, and bullet wounds.

Photo Caption: A team from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) inspects personal ID's found during exhumation at a mass-grave site in a remote mountain area in the village of Kamenica.

"It is obvious how they were executed," Musić said.

Many victims of the Srebrenica genocide were hunted down while running through the woods in small groups and shot.

The Bosnian Serbs first buried them near the execution sites but then dug up many of them up again with bulldozers and reburied them in so-called "secondary" mass graves, in an attempt to cover up the crime.

More than 3,000 victims have been DNA identified and buried. The remains of as many more, often dismembered, still await identification through DNA analysis.

Photo Caption: Forensic experts Sharna Daley of London U.K. left, and Rene Kosalka of Toronto, Canada, members of a team from the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) inspect human remains at a mass-grave site in remote mountain area in the village of Kamenica, Bosnia, on Friday, Nov. 16, 2007. Exhumed human remains will be identified by DNA examination . The exhumation of the Kamenica mass grave began last month. It is one of many secondary mass graves found in Kamenica, where Bosnian Serbs brought bodies from other sites in order to cover up the crime.