Identity of victims whose skeletal remains were buried under a fountain by a doctor in Brčko, previously buried in Potočari, revealed

Salko Hadžić and Mensur Nukić are two victims of the Srebrenica genocide, whose skeletal remains were found under a fountain in the yard of Brčko doctor Nebojša Mraović.

This was announced to their families in Tuzla on February 14. Both are from Vlasenica.

These are incomplete remains that were found concreted in a fountain in the yard of a private house in Brčko, as determined by the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina after exhumation and DNA analysis, as confirmed to RSE by the Institute on January 30.

The exhumation of the remains was carried out on September 21 last year in the yard of doctor Nebojša Mraović's house in Brčko.

The remains in the yard of the Brčko orthopedist were buried 11 years ago, after which he built a concrete fountain over them.

Mraović previously told RSE that he saw nothing wrong with the entire case, stating that the bones were used for "planning surgeries".

“To do something like that is beyond human comprehension. Only a monster, an irresponsible person without faith, culture, or nation could do it. Who would bring bones into their own yard,” Idriz Nukić, the brother of the murdered Mensur, told Radio Free Europe.

Fatima Berković, a relative of Salko Hadžić, stated that she was told that his skull, without the lower jaw, was found under the fountain in Brčko.

“I signed for re-exhumation and burial, given that Salko only has a living sister who resides in America. It is difficult; we are children of two sisters. His father and uncles perished in the genocide. What we have all been through, and the mere thought that a doctor concealed it is a crime upon a crime,” Fatima told RSE.

The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has received information about the DNA findings of incomplete remains of two individuals sent by the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were determined to belong to victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. There is no response yet from this judicial institution regarding the stage of the investigation.

The skeletal remains of Salko Hadžić, found in the Cerska area, were buried in 2022, and Nukić's in 2011 at the Potočari Memorial Center.

Cerska is about 40 kilometers away from Srebrenica.

Mraović continues to work at "Dr. Pajić Medical", a private clinic in Brčko, as confirmed by that healthcare institution to Radio Free Europe on February 13.

The Chamber of Physicians of the Republic of Srpska has not responded to RSE's inquiry about whether Mraović still holds a license to practice medicine and how the Chamber is acting in such cases.

According to the Criminal Code of Brčko District, anyone who unlawfully takes, hides, or moves a body or part of a body will be punished with a fine or imprisonment of up to one year.

The penalties are the same in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while in Republika Srpska, imprisonment of up to two years is possible.

The Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina does not address this, but it prescribes a prison sentence of up to three years if a person fails to report the location of a mass grave.

Almost three decades after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 7,597 missing persons are still being searched for, of which 1,200 are from Srebrenica alone.