Separated even after death: Srebrenica victims sought in multiple mass graves

The fall of Srebrenica and the executions

After the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, from 13 July onward, thousands of Bosniak men and boys were captured and executed. In the hangar of the agricultural cooperative in Kravica, more than 1,200 people were killed in a mass shooting.

The bodies of those killed were first buried in primary mass graves. According to court judgments, an engineering unit of the Zvornik Brigade of the Vojska Republike Srpske (VRS) took part in the burials. One of these primary graves is Glogova, by the road between Kravica and Bratunac, where the remains of 403 persons were found.

Concealment of the crime

According to the Hague Tribunal, between 1 August and 1 November 1995 an organized operation to conceal the executions was carried out: the bodies were exhumed from the primary graves and transported to secondary and tertiary graves. The bodies from Glogova were taken, among other places, to Zeleni Jadar, Jasenova, Zalazje, Pusmulići and Bljeceva. Excavators and bulldozers were used in the process.

Amor Mašović, director of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who led the search for the missing for many years, described the purpose of these relocations in these words: "All with one aim, to make it impossible to find these victims."

Senad Beganović

Senad Beganović was killed in July 1995, at the age of fourteen. His body did not remain in one place. In 1998, forensic teams found the lower part of his body in the secondary grave Zeleni Jadar. Two years later, in 2000, the upper part of the body was found in the primary grave Glogova near Bratunac. In 2005, his lower jaw was found in the Budak grave, and in 2007, again in Zeleni Jadar – according to genocid.ba in the grave Zeleni Jadar 5 – part of his skull.

In 2013, Senad was formally identified by his brother. In 2014, he was buried at the Srebrenica–Potočari Memorial Center, next to his father. Approximately half of his skeleton was found.

Kadrija Musić

According to Amor Mašović, twenty-two-year-old Kadrija Musić was shot in the agricultural cooperative in Kravica. Mašović states that his body was dismembered during the relocation from Glogova and scattered across four secondary locations, and that his remains were found in five graves located a total of 32 kilometers apart. According to Mašović, six of Kadrija Musić's 207 bones were found.

Responsibility

The executions and the concealment of the graves after the fall of Srebrenica were, according to judgments of the Hague Tribunal, the work of the Vojska Republike Srpske. The fates of Senad Beganović and Kadrija Musić testify that, even years after the war, the families of victims buried only parts of the bodies of their loved ones.