Only 20 victims identified from Tomašica mass grave

The largest mass grave in Bosnia and Herzegovina was discovered last year at the Tomašica mine site near Prijedor. According to the director of the Institute for Missing Persons of BiH, Amor Mašović, 20 victims have been identified so far, all of them Bosniaks.

- We have received some new information; for the past month and a half, we have been working with witnesses to locate other Prijedor victims concurrently with the identification at Tomašica. After we finish processing Tomašica, we will re-examine it to ensure no skeletal remains are left - Mašović stated.

It is presumed that Tomašica contained over 900 victims from the Prijedor area, and according to Mašović, it is the primary mass grave, while the Jakarina Kosa site, exhumed in September and October 2001, is a secondary one.

- This was confirmed by the witness who led us to Tomašica. Over 308 victims were identified from Jakarina Kosa, and they were brought from Tomašica to this location - Mašović stated, noting that the trial of Ratko Mladić (trial for genocide against Bosniaks in The Hague, editor's note) also mentioned a "meeting in Krajina, or rather, the transfer of bodies from one place to another".

This is further confirmed by the fact that skeletal remains of 50 victims were found in both graves. 435 victims were exhumed from Tomašica, and as Mašović told NAP, they have a total of 109 DNA reports, based on which they have identified a total of 89 victims. He emphasized that they will try to identify as many victims as possible so that they can be buried in Potočari on July 11.