physicians human for e s forensic assistance...

$: PHYSICIANS HUMAN for E S FORENSIC ASSISTANCE PROJECTstorage.osaarchivum.org/low/0f/df/0fdfa520-8a35-40f3-b214-556afa795a44... · \NE S FORENSIC ASSISTANCE PROJECT Consultant Report$
PHYSICIANS for

HUMAN RIGHTS

\NS

E FORENSIC ASSISTANCE PROJECT

Consultant Report 1999-024

Miljevici III

Federation Commission on Missing Persons - Bosniak Side 7 - 8 June 1999

Heather York, M.A. Forensic Consultant

Forensic Assistance Project Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina

December 1999

Physicians for Human Rights 100 Boylston Street, Suite 702 Boston, MA 02116 USA Tel. (617) 695-0041 Fax. (617) 695-0307 Email: [email protected] http: //www.phrusa. org

Physicians for Human Rights Hasana Kaimije br. 11

71000 Sarajevo Bosna i Hercegovina Tel: 387-71-232-941 Fax: 387-71-233-767

Financed with support of International Commission on Missing Persons

ICMP International Commission

on Missing Persons

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.phrusa

MILJEVICI III CONSULTANT REPORT

Summary of Events

On 7 and 8 June 1999, the Federation Commission on Missing Persons - Bosniak Side recovered the remains of at least 21 individuals from two sites south of Sarajevo, near the towns of Miljevici and Vranjes.

Nineteen sets of remains were recovered from a cemetery near Miljevici. They were interred in wooden coffins in separate, marked graves through the cemetery. They ranged in condition from partially skeletonized to completely saponified, and were generally intact. Clothing generally appeared to be of civilian-type, although it was not always directly observed.

Two sets of remains were recovered from the northwest section of a cemetery near Vranjes. One set was marked by a wooden cross inscribed with a name and dates. They were unwrapped and skeletonized. The other set had no marker. They wrere saponified inside a body bag and bed sheet. Both sets of remains were fairly complete and dressed in civilian-type clothing.

A PHR Forensic Consultant was present for all exhumations conducted at these two sites.

Postmortem examination of these remains was carried out by Dr. Ilijas Dobraca at the Visoko Morgue Facility. A PHR Forensic Consultant attended the examinations of both sets of Vranjes remains and three sets of Miljevici remains on 10 June 1999.

No official summary of the postmortem examination findings had been forwarded to PHR at the time of report writing.

Table 1: Summary of Exhumation Results

Site Grid Coordinate Minimum Number of Individuals Miljevici 34TBP904E571N 19 Vranjes 34T BP 885E 552N 2

(Editor's note: In 1999, it was agreed that the "State Commission on Missing Persons (Bosniak Side)," and the "Federal Commission on Missing Persons - Croat Side" would eventually be referred to as the "Federation Commission on Missing Persons - Bosniak Side" and "Federation Commission on Missing Persons - Croat Side," respectively. For purposes of simplicity and clarity, any reference to either of these commissions in 1999 reports will use the "Federation" names.)

PHYSICIANS/or HUMAN RIGHTS, December 1999 1

MILJEVI& III CONSULTANT REPORT

Participants and Observers (not necessarily inclusive)

Federation Commission on Missing ARNAUTOVIC Hikmet BESIC Sejid DRAGANOVIC Kemal DOBRACA Dr. Ilijas HADZIC Ibrahim HRNJIC Saudin KOSO Sejid MASOVIC Amor MUJKIC Muhamed

SEHOVIC Dzevad TARIC Ermin Visoko Cemetery Laborers

Persons (Bosniak Side) Prosecutor Crime Technician, Sarajevo Member Forensic Pathologist, Sarajevo Judge Autopsy Assistant, Sarajevo Army, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina President Manager of the Photographic Department, State Commission for Gathering Facts on War Criminals Sarajevo Police Crime Technician, Sarajevo

Republika Srpska (RS) Commission on Tracing Prisoners and Missing Persons SKRBA Slobodan Member Local Police

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) KOMAR Dr. Debra TAHIROVIC Elvira TORLAKOVIC Azur YORK Heather

Forensic Consultant (7 June) Field Assistant (Postmortem Examinations only) Field Assistant Forensic Consultant

Office of the High Representative (OHR.) CELEBIC Amra MAGIERA Matt

Media SARAC Edina

Assistant Exhumations Coordinator Exhumations Officer, Sarajevo

Dnevni Avaz Newspaper, Sarajevo

Exhumation Process

Miljevici

The day of 7 June 1999 got off to a late start because Slobodan Skrba, representative from the RS Commission, was an hour late in arriving at the IEBL meeting point. When he finally arrived, he claimed he had not been informed of the scheduled exhumations and threatened to cancel work for the day. He did not follow through, but he spent the rest of the day complaining.

The site was 0.5 km south of Sarajevo and 1.5 km west of Miljevici. It was west of the main throughfare, in an established but unkempt cemetery at grid coordinate 34T BP 904 57IN on the Sarajevo topographic map (Sheet 2782 I; Edition 9-DMA; Series M709; Scale 1:50,000; Figure 1). The area under investigation was a 50 m x 30 m section of the cemetery south of a



dirt road. The graves exhumed were to the north of an area from which four graves had previously been exhumed by the Commission.

Judge Hadzic stated that the Commission was looking for the remains of 19 individuals in marked graves. One set of remains from this cemetery had previously been examined. The Commission believed that the remains exhibited evidence of execution: the woman's mouth had been taped shut, and there was a gunshot wound that entered beneath her jaw and exited through the top of her head. They were interested in corroborating witness reports of torture in the remains from this site.

Judge Hadzic also discussed with the PHR Forensic Consultant and the OHR Exhumations Officer the possibility of exhuming one individual buried at this site who had died in 1996, after the signing of the Dayton Agreement. The Commission reasoned that although this individual did not fall under the usual purview of the Joint Exhumations Process, the fact that he had been allegedly killed by Bosnian Serbs as they pulled out of the area made him eligible for exhumation. They decided to wait until the matter can be discussed with Agneta Johansson, OHR Head of Exhumations.

Individual graves were demarcated with yellow police tape, photographed, and measured (Photo 1). They were then exhumed by laborers with shovels, under the direction of Dr. Dobraca. The exhumed graves all had headstones inscribed with names and dates. One grave had a small, homemade sign stuck into the earth above the coffin reading "Fair Trade 1948-1993" in Cyrillic letters (Photo 2). In all, 19 graves were exhumed. The remains were buried in coffins at an average depth of approximately 1 m, below the water table (Photo 3). The interments were oriented to the south. All observed clothing was civilian-type, but clothing was not always closely observed. The majority of remains were complete, articulated, and saponified, although some were partially skeletonized.

The burials were numbered from 1-19 and photographed in situ and after exhumation. The remains were placed in the Commission's vehicle for transport to the Visoko morgue facility at the end of the day.

Vranjes

On 8 June 1999, the team investigated a cemetery site 2 km south of Sarajevo, 0.5 km west of Vranjes at grid coordinate 34T BP 885Ei 552N on the Sarajevo topographic map (Sheet 2782 I; Edition 9-DMA; Series M709; Scale 1:50,000; Figure 1). The area under investigation was adjacent on the west to a 72-body mass grave previously exhumed by the Commission (Photo 5).

Upon arrival of the participants at the cemetery, an argument broke out between Slobodan Skrba and OHR Exhumations Officer Matt Magiera regarding Mr. Skrba's refusal to communicate through the OHR translator. Mr. Skrba felt the translator had insulted him the previous day. Mr. Skrba claimed that Miss Celebic had called him an idiot, so he would only communicate through PHR's field assistant or the OHR driver. Mr. Magiera offered his apologies for his translator's behavior, but insisted that Mr. Skrba continue to speak through her. Mr. Skrba agreed, but subsequently refused to speak directly to Mr. Magiera for the remainder of the day.

PHYSICIANS/?/- HUMAN RIGHTS, December 1999 3


Mr. Magiera had information from the Commission that some of the remains they sought were buried beneath marked Bosnian Croat graves in the cemetery. After some discussion with Sejid Koso, he was told that the Commission did not intend to exhume those remains. However, they did intend to exhume a Bosnian Croat grave. According to Mr. Koso, the sister of the decedent applied to the Commission to have the body exhumed, probably because she knew they would be working in the area. Initially, Mr. Magiera asked the team to delay this irregular exhumation until he could confirm with Agneta Johansson that this was permissible. Despite this request, Mr. Koso directed the laborers to begin the exhumation immediately. Mr. Magiera voiced his objections, and then stated that he did not condone what was happening. As he was preparing to leave the site in protest, Ms. Johansson telephoned to say that she and Mr. Masovic had agreed that the team should go ahead with the exhumation. Mr. Masovic had given his assurances that he would inform the Croat division of the Commission of their actions.

Laborers with shovels, directed by Dr. Dobraca, dug to the southeast of a barbed wire fence, northwest of the main cemetery. A wooden cross inscribed with a name and date marked the remains. These were allegedly the remains of the Bosnian Croat. The unwrapped remains were encountered at an approximate depth of 0.3 m. The head was toward the southwest. The remains were skeletonized and dressed in civilian-type clothing. Photographs were taken of the remains, designated as Body 54, in situ and after exhumation (Photo 6).

Body 55 was between Body 54 and the barbed wire fence. The grave had no marker. The remains were contained in a heavy, plastic, black body bag at an approximate depth of 2 m. Inside the bag, the saponified remains were wrapped in a white sheet and dressed in civilian-type clothing.. The head was towards the southwest inside the bag.

The laborers shoveled for a few centimeters beneath the exhumed remains, but no further human remains were encountered.

Postmortem Examination Findings

On 10 June 1999, a Forensic Consultant attended the postmortem examinations conducted by Dr. Ilijas Dobraca at the Visoko Morgue Facility. Twelve sets of remains were examined on that day. Three were from Miljevici, two from Vranjes, and the remainder from other sites recently investigated by the Commission: Zepa (one), Hadzici (five), and Or£eve Vode Trnovo (one).

The standard procedure with skeletal remains was to clean the elements by scraping them and lay them out in anatomical order for examination. Stature was calculated based on long bone measurements. Age was estimated based on degree of cranial suture closure, and sex was assessed on the basis of clothing and pelvic morphology. Elements were examined for evidence of trauma (Photos 7 and 8).

Fleshed remains were examined internally and externally. Stature was calculated based on measurements of entire bodies when the remains were sufficiently intact. However, these measurements were not done very meticulously; in some cases, the bodies were not fully extended before the measurement was taken. Sex was assessed on the basis of external genitalia and clothing. Soft tissue and clothing were examined for evidence of trauma.

PHYSICIANS^ HUMAN RIGHTS, December 1999 4


Bones were also palpated through incisions in the soft tissue for fractures, although not very thoroughly.

Detailed descriptions of clothing, wrapping, dentition, dental appliances, hair, and associated personal effects were recorded for all sets of remains. No official cause of death was pronounced during these examinations, and no positive identifications were made. The examination of each body lasted an average of 13 minutes.

A summary of observations made by the Consultant on the relevant remains is presented in Table 2, below.

Table 2: Consultant Observations at Postmortem Examinations

Body# Wrapping Condition Sex Trauma Stature Miljevici 1 Blanket Saponified M Right femoral shaft shattered; face

broken awaiy from neurocranium 180 cm

Miljevici 9 Body Bag Saponified ? None observed 140 cm Miljevici 13 Blanket &

bed sheet Saponified & skeletonized

? None observed 160 cm

VranjeS 54 None Skeletonized F GSW to skull 172 cm VranjeS 55 Body Bag Saponified F GS W through parietals 174 cm

No official summary of the findings on the 21 sets of remains recovered from these two sites had been fonvarded to PHR at the time of report writing. If such a report is received, it will be filed along with this report.



PHYSICIANS for HUMAN RIGHTS, December 1999 6


Photo 1: View to the southeast of crime technician cordoning off site area with yellow tape at Miljevici.

Photo 2: Grave of Body #5 at Miljevici with "Fair Trade 1948-1993" sign.

PHYSICIANS/or HUMAN RIGHTS, December 1999


3CS

Photo 3: Body #7 at Miljevici in standing water.



Photo 4: Body #14 at Miljevici, in situ, stained blue from clothing.



Photo 5: View to the south-southeast at Vranjes. A previously exhumed mass grave is to the right; graves to be exhumed were to the left of the photo field.

Photo 6: Body #54 at Vranjes, in situ, with head toward the southwest.



Photo 7: Postmortem examination of Body #54 from Vranjes; calipers being used to measure a circular defect in the cranium.

Photo 8: Postmortem examination of Body #55 from Vranjes; arrow pointer showing a bullet's trajectory through the cranium.


physicians human for e s forensic assistance...

Documents