KAMENICA MASS GRAVE YIELDS 362 VICTIMS OF SREBRENICA GENOCIDE, TOTAL 4,000 SO FAR

About 5,200 victims of Europe's worst genocide since World War 2 have been identified through DNA analysis so far. Approximately, 4000 victims were unearthed from 10 Kamenica mass graves.

PHOTO: Young Bosniak girls look at forensic experts of the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) searching for human remains in a mass grave in remote mountain near the village of Kamenica. Forensic experts said they had unearthed the remains of 362 Bosniak Muslim victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide from a mass grave in eastern Bosnia.

Forensic experts had unearthed the remains of 362 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide from the tenth mass grave in Kamenica village. The 1995 Srebrenica genocide claimed lives of 8,000 - 10,000 Bosniaks - men, children, and elderly. Around 4,000 bodies of Srebrenica genocide victims have so far been exhumed from 10 mass graves along the 7-mile road from Srebrenica to the village of Kamenica. The area is more commonly known as "Death Valley." Thousands of bodies await painstaikingly slow DNA-identification process run by the International Commission on Missing Persons.

PHOTO: Forensic experts of the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) search for human remains in a mass grave in remote mountain near the village of Kamenica.

Murat Hurtic of the regional commission for missing persons said documents recovered at the massacre site showed the victims were from Srebrenica, the eastern enclave that was under United Nations protection when it was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-95 war. Hurtic said the victims were killed at three locations near Srebrenica and transferred to Kamenica from the original graves three months after the execution.

PHOTO: Forensic experts of the International Commission for Missing Persons (ICMP) search for human remains in a mass grave in remote mountain near the village of Kamenica.

"The bodies are well preserved because they had lain in clay before being transferred here," he said and added that the findings unearthed included 145 complete bodies and 217 incomplete skeletal remains. Victims were hunted down while running through the woods in small groups and shot, or tricked into surrendering and them summarily executed and dumped into mass graves. Bosnian Serbs first buried the bodies near the execution sites but then dug many of them out with bulldozers and re-buried them in so-called "secondary" mass graves, in an attempt to hide the crime.

Experts believe there are more mass graves in the Kamenica area. In 2006, another grave in the valley yielded more than 1,000 body parts, making it the biggest such site in Bosnia. About 5,200 victims of Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two have been identified through DNA analysis so far.

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More coverage on Kamenica mass graves directly from Srebrenica Genocide Blog:

More Srebrenica Genocide Victims Exhumed from Death Valley (Sep 22 2008)
Short excerpt: The victims were initially buried in a dozen mass graves. But after the release of satellite pictures showing large portions of freshly disturbed ground, Serbs moved them to other locations in order to cover up the crimes...

Photos of Srebrenica Genocide Victims Misused by Serbian Extremists (Dec 6 2007)
Short excerpt: This kind of propaganda can be only produced by the sickest minds in order to misinform the public; and this is what they have been doing for the last 15 years with their bold faced lies and propaganda...

Kamenica Death Valley Yields 616 More Corpses (Nov 23 2007)
Short excerpt: We found 76 complete and 540 incomplete bodies," said Ismet Music, 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. This brings the total number of exhumed bodies to over 4,200 just from the "Death Valley" area alone...

More Victims Found as 11th Anniversary of Genocide Looms (Jul 6 2006)
Short excerpt: Forensic experts said on Thursday they had unearthed the remains of 268 victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre - the first legally established case of genocide in Europe after the Holocaust - days before its 11th anniversary...

11th Anniversary of the Massacre (Jul 11 2006)
Short excerpt: Meanwhile, new Srebrenica victims were being unearthed at one of the largest mass graves discovered last month in the village of Kamenica, some 30 kilometers from Srebrenica. Among them - body remains of children; the youngest victim was a 10 year old girl...

Kamenica Mass Grave Yields Over 1,000 Body Parts (Aug 11 2006)
Short excerpt: A 10-person team, including forensic experts from Canada and Serbia employed by the Bosnia-based International Commission on Missing Persons, worked in the 18-meter by 4-meter (60 ft by 13 ft) grave...

Srebrenica Genocide: Crime Against All Humanity (Aug 18 2006)
Short excerpt: In Potocari on July 12 a 14-year-old Bosniak girl hung herself with her scarf after she and her 12-year old cousin were raped by Serb soldiers. By this time Serb soldiers had killed at least 99 people, including 20 to 30 women and children...

Genocide Trial Without Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic (Aug 22 2006)
Short excerpt: “Defenceless men and boys [were] executed by firing squads, buried in mass graves and then dug up and buried again in an attempt to conceal the truth from the world." Chief U.N. Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said many victims had been bound and blindfolded "to make the murder easier for the executioners"...

Srebrenica Genocide Trials and Mass Graves (Sep 18 2006)
Short excerpt: Ahmo Hasic "believed to be one of only 12 men who survived the slaughter of 8,000 Bosniak men and boys" told the judges he stayed alive only by playing dead after Serb soldiers started shooting.The trial chamber heard a similar testimony last week from Mevludin Oric who described how he lay under a pile of dead bodies for several hours...