LAKE PERUĆAC, SEARCH FOR REMAINS OF KILLED BOSNIAKS ENDS, SOME 500 VICTIMS STILL MISSING

Serb Authorities Rushed Investigators to End the Search to Refill the Lake

Radio-TV of Federation of BiH (RTVFBiH) reported today that the search for remains of Bosniak victims in the Perućac Lake has ended. Families and relatives of the missing paid their final farewell to approximately 500 victims whose remains will "forever" stay in the depths of the Lake Perućac. Serbian authorities rushed to refill the lake forcing forensic investigators to end the search. The search of the lake and part of the Drina River, which marks the border between Serbia and Bosnia, started late July when water levels dropped to an historic low because of repairs being carried out on the dam. In a race against time, forensic investigators battled constant rain to recover hundreds of remains of Bosniak women, children and the elderly killed by Serbs in the 1992 Bosnian war. Remains belonging to more than 250 Bosnian Muslim victims from Višegrad, Srebrenica and Bratunac were exhumed from the lake.

#1. Bosnian Army helicopter transported volunteers to the opposite side of the temporarily drained artificial Lake Perucac, to join forensic experts in searching for human remains in the dried mud, Lake Perucac, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Wednesday, Aug, 18, 2010. Shovel wielding volunteers joined forensic experts searching for more remains of Bosniak war victims on the muddy banks of Lake Perucac in eastern Bosnia.

#2. Volunteers dig in a temporarily drained artificial lake as they search for human remains, Lake Perucac, Bosnia-Herzegovina Wednesday, Aug, 18, 2010.

#3. A forensic expert assembles skeletons found on the bank of Lake Perucac in eastern Bosnia August 5, 2010. For generations, the River Drina separating Serbia from Bosnia has received the dead of the region's wars. Now, for the first time in decades, it is giving many of them up.

#4. A forensic expert of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) uncovers skeletons found on the bank of Lake Perucac in eastern Bosnia August 5, 2010.

#5. A forensic expert of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) uncovers skeletons found on the bank of Lake Perucac in eastern Bosnia August 5, 2010.

#6. Forensic experts of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) uncover the remains of people suspected to be killed in 1992, on the shore of lake Perucac near Visegrad, August 5, 2010. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic faces 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity related to the 1992-1995 Bosnian war that killed at least 100,000 people, including two counts of genocide.

#7. Lake Perucac on 2 October 2010, refilled. Serbian authorities rushed to refill the lake forcing forensic investigators to end the search.