Crni Vrh mass grave

Crni Vrh mass grave
Location	Crni Vrh, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Coordinates	44°21′20″N19°03′15″E / 44.35556°N 19.05417°E / 44.35556; 19.05417
Date	1992–1995
Target	Bosnian Muslims
Attack type	Mass killing and ethnic cleansing
Deaths	629
Perpetrators	Serb paramilitary groups

The Crni Vrh mass grave, discovered in 2003, is among the largest mass graves found in Bosnia and Herzegovina after the Bosnian War of the 1990s. It was discovered on the mountain Crni Vrh, and contained the remains of 629 Bosniak victims, killed by Serb forces in the villages surrounding Zvornik in 1992 and Srebrenica in 1995. ^{[1] [2]} The International Commission on Missing Persons said that the victims had originally been buried in other locations, but were reburied in the remote grave on Crni Vrh after the war in an effort to conceal the crimes.

Discovery and exhumation

In 2003, a mass grave containing the remains of 629 Bosniak victims killed by Serb forces was uncovered on Mount Crni Vrh, and became one of the largest discovered mass grave in Bosnia and Herzegovina following the Bosnian War of the 1990's. ^{[3] [4] [5]} The exhumation of the mass grave began on 28 July 2003. On 20 August 2003, it was announced that 112 complete bodies and about 40 other incomplete corpses had been exhumed at that point, with hundreds more expect to be discovered in the grave. ^{[6] [7]} During the two-month exhumation of the site, Crni Vrh was visited by numerous local and foreign officials, assuring the severity of the crime. Clothing and documents found in the mass grave indicated that the victims were mostly Bosnian Muslim civilians who were killed by local Serb forces in the period between April and June 1992 in and around Zvornik. ^[8] The decomposed corpses of men, women and children were found. The body of a Muslim child between five and six years of age was found, killed by a bullet in the spine. ^[9] The hands of some of the victims were tied before their executions. ^[10]

Burials and trials

On 15 April 2006, 42 of the exhumed victims from Crni Vrh and another mass grave in Kazanbašča were laid to rest in the Martyr cemetery in Memići near Kalesija. No one has been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

References

1. "Bosnian mass grave found to be secondary". Al Jazeera. 4 August 2003. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
2. "Bosnia digging up what could be biggest mass grave". Seattle Times. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
3. Nettelfield, Lara J.; Wagner, Sarah (9 December 2013). Srebrenica in the Aftermath of Genocide. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9781107000469 . Retrieved 9 May 2015.
4. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2008 Vol.1. Government Printing Office. ISBN   9780160875151 . Retrieved 9 May 2015.
5. "Bosnia digging up mass grave hidden for 20 years by Serb silence". Yahoo!. 22 October 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
6. "Exhumation of Crni Vrh mass grave in Bosnia continues". NEurope. 24 August 2003. Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
7. "Experts exhume 150 bodies from mass grave in Bosnia". USA Today. 20 August 2003. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
8. "'700 bodies' in Bosnian mass grave". The Guardian. 20 August 2003. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
9. "Sahranjene 42 identifikovane žrtve iz zvorničkih masovnih grobnica". DW. 16 April 2006. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
10. "Beggest mass grave discovered in North Bosnia-Herzegovina". BNA. 25 September 2003. Retrieved 9 May 2015.