A single human skeleton contains 206 bones. Fingers. Knuckles. Toes. Pelvis. Spine. Legs. Arms. Neck. Hips. Skull.
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A single human body contains a heart. Lungs. Blood. A brain.
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A single human being contains a mind. Love. Hope. Joy. And most of all, a soul.
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A single human existence is precious.
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A single human life reduced to a pile of bones whose remains are found in four separate locations across fifteen separate mass graves/pits. Perhaps a single broken fragment of a bone is found. Or two. Ten. Thirty. With or without the skull attached.
Re-association: the process of putting the bones of a body together based upon DNA testing.
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On this trip, we had the occasion to visit the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Tuzla, about a three hours drive from Srebrenica. The ICMP is the largest international organization dedicated to the forensic identification of persons missing from war, genocide, natural disasters, and other tragedies.
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Upon walking into the ICMP’s Podrinje Identification Facility, it looked like a regular disheveled office with a long hallway and several offices. Papers and office equipment stacked haphazardly in the hallway, except for the large yellow doors that look like the entrances to commercial freezers. Following a detailed explanation of the ICMP’s work I was staring into what appeared to be a large room with bookshelves, medical equipment, and two washing machines. Nothing much to stare at. Then I poked my head into the space a bit further. And there he was. The skeletal remains of an adult male spread out on metal table organized as though this soul was lying down taking a nap. His ribs. Pelvis. Femurs. Hands — a series of bony parts sans his skull. I went numb.
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Behind the yellow door we walked into a large warehouse with a clammy temperature and a gassy, odd smell. Inside it were trays and trays of bags stacked ceiling to floor. Plastic mesh and brown paper bags with identification numbers on them containing unearthed bone fragments, clothes, and other artifacts excavated from mass graves. My tears began to flow. My breath became shallow. My skin pale. My head pounding. My stomach turning. The experience will live within me forever.
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The Popović trial heard by the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia proved beyond a reasonable doubt that genocide was indeed committed at Srebrenica on 11 July 1995. The physical evidence accumulated makes this a proven fact despite Serbian nationalist propaganda and rhetoric claiming otherwise.
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To date, the ICMP has identified 5,036 missing persons from Srebrenica. Identifying those murdered in the genocide presents a number of forensic challenges, not the least of which is the large number of people who met ‘missing’ in such short span of time. This is compounded by the lack of forensic capacity in the local municipalities and the sheer number of primary and secondary mass graves located throughout the countryside. As a result, the challenge of identifying a single human being is extremely difficult because the remains of each person slaughtered have been violently disturbed, even after the most gruesome of deaths. This problem is because the Bosnian Serbs disinterred bodies from primary graves to secondary ones. In the process, the bones were damaged. Clothing, objects, and even identification cards fell away that may have more quickly made the recognition process somewhat easier.
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Following the war, an army of international archaeologists and anthropologists descended upon Bosnia. Some remains were excavated by hand, while others were dug up using mechanical equipment, further damaging the evidence. The process of identifying each bone requires a DNA sample to be taken. But in order to make a match, DNA samples from family members are also required. Since over 8,000 men and boys went missing, the ICMP had to collect blood samples from 8,000 families in the Bosnian Diaspora scattered across the globe. As such, over 28,000 separate DNA tests were collected for over 15,000 victims given the scattering of forensic evidence and large number of mass graves.
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The ICMP estimates that approximately 8-10,000 bodies are still buried underneath the ground. The location of these graves is complicated by the fact that there are few witnesses willing to come forward. The reason? These particular persons are frequently eye witnesses and/or participants in the murders. And even though the Bosniak men and boys killed were from Bosnia i Herzegovina (BiH), their remains may also turn up in other territories. These locations include Serbia and Croatia given that the Drina River Valley is the natural division between countries rather than the politically-enforced borders. As a result, the site of a person’s disappearance may not in fact guarantee the recovery of his remains in the same place.
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The Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo (RDC) runs the Human Losses Project. This recording process has collected evidence of 100,000 persons killed, lost, and missing during the war of all ethnic backgrounds. The project provides irrefutable evidence of the war’s devastation on the population. The RDCS uses Google Atlas technology to locate these mass graves. 4,500 bodies have been buried to date. The decision to bury one of the identified victims is solely up to the family. However, the process of identification does not end when a body is buried since additional bones may turn up in graves at a later date. Some families choose to delay this process as long as possible especially when the skull is missing and/or to ensure that the majority of bones have been located.
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As luck would have it, on the Marš Mira Peace March, I met Sarah Wagner, an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina at Greensboro. She wrote an influential book entitled, ““To Know Where He Lies: DNA Technology and the Search for Srebrenica’s Missing.”While remains from victims from the 1995 Srebrenica genocide have been mostly located, those persons slaughtered in 1992 are not as likely given the passage of time.
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Forensic re-association and DNA matching remain a scientific process. Not so for the families of the missing. During our visit to the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center, we met with a staff member whose father was killed in the genocide and who was missing for several years. One night she had a dream that her father’s remains would be identified with the exception of a single piece. A call from the ICMP came the next day confirming her vision: her father’s body had been found and was only missing one part. The bones may turn to dust, but the soul remains.
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International Commission on Missing Persons:
http://www.ic-mp.org/
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Popović et al. (IT-05-88) “Srebrenica”: http://www.icty.org/case/popovic/4
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The Research and Documentation Center: Human Losses Project:
http://www.norveska.ba/ARKIV/Ongoing_Projects/6CFD9857_BDFA_402B_8CF2_45E9803E08B5/
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Sarah Wagner’s book, “To Know Where He Lies: DNA Technology and the Search for Srebrenica’s Missing”:
http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520255753
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