'Largest' Bosnian grave found

'Largest' Bosnian grave found

By Nick Hawton
BBC Balkans correspondent

Forensic scientists believe they have found the largest mass grave ever discovered in Bosnia.

Several hundred Bosnian Muslims are thought to be buried at the site in the east of the country.

They are said to be victims of the Srebrenica massacre which took place towards the end of the Bosnian war in 1995.

The grave is situated in dense woodland, a few kilometres from the town of Zvornik, close to the border with Serbia.

The area is known as Crni Vrh, or Black Peak.

The International Commission for Missing Persons, the lead agency in discovering mass graves in the Balkans, says the site could contain as many as 600 people.

That would make it twice as large as any other mass grave found in Bosnia.

Site kept secret

Information about the site is understood to have been provided by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Many Srebrenica victims are to be reburied on Monday

The whereabouts of the grave has been known for some time, but the information has been kept secret for fear that the site could be disturbed or vandalised.

It is now under the protection of local police backed up by international monitors.

The discovery comes just days before a historic ceremony near, when the first of hundreds of reburials of Srebrenica victims will take place at a new cemetery and memorial in the village of Potocari.

Ten thousand white tombstones are being erected in memory of those who died when Serb forces overran the UN safe area in July 1995.