PHYSICIANS for

HUMAN RIGHTS FORENSIC MONITORING PROJECT REPORT

Jajce Exhumations of Republika Srpska Commission on Missing Persons (2-7 and 17 March 1998) FINDINGS

A Report by: Page Hudson, M.D. Director Forensic Monitoring Project Tuzla, Bosna i Hercegovina 21 April 1998

Physicians for Human Rights 100 Boylston Street, Suite 702 Boston, MA 02116 USA Tel. (617)695-0041 Fax. (617) 695-0307 Email: [email protected] http://www.phrusa.org

Physicians for Human Rights Pere Cuskica br.24 75000 Tuzla Bosna i Hercegovina Tel/fax: 387-75-250-639 Tel: 387-75-234-438

Financed with support of International Commission on Missing

Persons

Summary of Events The State Commission on Missing Persons for the Republika Srpska (RS) recovered 78 bodies on March 2-4, at Carevo Polje, Jajce, Bosnia I Hercegovina, and three bodies on March 17 at Blazevici, Jajce. The 78 were interred on a hill on the outskirts of the town in orderly fashion in two very closely associated, unmarked graves. They were in body bags. The three were buried individually within about 30 meters of each other on a farm a couple of kilometers outside of town, and were buried without bags. Causes of death varied, but included gunshots and blunt force trauma. Other sites explored at Jajce were at Bravnice and a plant nursery adjacent to a school in Jajce proper. The technical leader of the Commission's team was Dr. Zeljko Karan, the RS's forensic pathologist. The team included police investigators, photographers, commission members, laborers and others. The bodies were transported each day to the RS facility in Banja Luka. Dr. Karan reported that, as of Friday, 17 April, 73 of the 81 total had been identified. Nearly all of those bodies have been claimed by the appropriate parties, essentially the families. The Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) forensic monitor observed and consulted with the RS team at Carevo Polje and actually assisted with the exhumation at Blazevici. The monitor was present for at least part of the examinations on over half of the bodies. Other PHR monitors were present for some of the exhumations and postmortem examinations.

Participants and Observers Jovo Rosic: Chairman, RS Commission Zeljko Karan: RS forensic pathologist Milko Marie: Senior crime scene investigator Radomir Gajic: Public district attorney Milan Ivancevic: RS State Commission; operative Goran Krcmar: " " Stanislav Jakov: Investigating judge, RS Berislav Cvitanovic: Federation Commission on Missing Persons, Croat side Agneta Johansson: OHR Col. Roy Parkinson: OHR, Banja Luka Monika Zanarelli: ICRC, Banja Luka Local Police British SFOR UN Observers Mario De Lucia: IPTF Investigators Photographers, several organizations Diggers, RS Crime scene investigators

Mapper, RS Crime Judge (Jajce) Crime scene technician/photographer Zoran Stoisavljevic: WTN

Site Description Overview The primary site (A) was called Carevo Polje located off a paved road on a hill above the city center. The general area was quite open and sources variously said it was intended to be a city cemetery, and /or a residential complex. It had a low wall, and had hard surfaced roads within. Just within the area, as one approaches it from the city center, is a T-intersection. Just below the crossbar of the T on the right a grave was identified with a body probe. The ground, in an approximately five by forty meter zone parallel to the approach road, was roughened but settled as if disturbed, but not within a year or so. The other zone at this site in which bodies were found was an approximately three by twenty meter area of slightly disturbed earth. Still other suspect sites were dug or probed, but no other bodies were found. The surrounding neighborhood consisted variously of plum orchard, low woods, cemetery, and houses. Another site explored (B) was a deserted plant nursery next to a school yard in Jajce proper. This overgrown area with its smashed greenhouse was demined and probed heavily. No suspicious traces were encountered. Site (C) on the pre-visit report was not an object of exploration that I am aware of. The exploration of several slightly suspicious roadside

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locations, site (D), on the Jajce-Donji Vakuf highway yielded only remains of several horses and wagons. Site (E) was discovered when a local resident volunteered to the Jajce police that he believed he had graves on his property. The police brought the witness to RS officials during the exhumation at Carevo Polje. After demining, it was explored and three bodies were recovered on 17 March. This was a somewhat remote area roughly northeast of Carevo Polje by a few kilometers. The eventual body sites were in a pastured farm area.

History Relating to the Mass Grave The 78 bodies at Carevo Polje are said to have been buried in September, 1995. None of the buried bodies are thought to have died at the burial site, but were "Serbs" who died in a variety of circumstances around that time. Thirteen soldiers allegedly died when their fuelhauling truck was shot. Troops and civilians were supposed to have been killed when a bus followed by a wagon containing children and other civilians was attacked. Some civilians were said to have died in a house fire, origin of which the monitor did not learn. Some soldiers were killed in battle. Lists of soldiers missing in the area were available to the RS from military sources. Croat authorities from Mostar are said to have furnished a list of people thought to have died in or about Jajce. Approximately 70 "Croats" are said to have been exhumed from an almost contiguous burial site., by Croats, approximately a year before our examination. On the hill above the meadow where the three soldier bodies were buried, were three or four badly damaged houses. One obviously had bars on the lower tier of windows. This was said by some RS personnel present to be where prisoners were kept and later killed.

Exhumation Process and Condition of Remains The discovery and removal of the bodies at Carevo Polje went efficiently and effectively. Fifty-five bodies were recovered from pit one, twenty-three from pit two. All were in two parallel rows and were side by side, supine and in orderly fashion. Depth ranged only from about half a meter to one meter. The overburden was removed with varying combinations of an earth mover and hand shovels. The team closely and effectively coordinated the power shovel (earth mover). Similarly, close management of the digging crew was exhibited. Despite having died about September 1995, the bodies remained in sufficiently good condition to retain recognizable features. Serial numbers and single bodies were present in the bags. Except in one bag, where there were fragmented, partly burned portions of three bodies. As previously mentioned, the bodies reflected several different episodes and types of victims. There were old civilians and young, females and males, as well as soldiers. At Blazevici the bodies were in military uniforms, but without arms or ammunition. They were buried separately, rather decomposed and slightly disarticulated. Two bodies, semiflexed around the bases of plum trees, were about seven meters apart. The burial points

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appeared more to represent earth having been piled upon the bodies at the base of the trees, than their having been put in dug holes. Five healing gunshot wounds of the tree above one body were found. About 30 meters away was a heap of earth over a surface-laid body. From the disturbed earth it appeared obvious that heavy equipment had been used to put dirt over the bodies. No seriously disarticulated bodies were found except for the portions of three burned bodies in one bag at Carevo Polje. At each of the sites there appeared to be agents mapping, sketching, making notes and taking pictures, typically with numbers where appropriate.

Summary of Autopsy Findings Due to interentity communication difficulties, the monitor was a week late in arriving in Banja Luka for the autopsies. Twenty five bodies had been identified and were in the process of being returned to families when PHR joined the RS team. The PHR monitor(s) witnessed examination of more than one half of the bodies examined for identification and autopsy. These two processes were multi-staged, a phenomenon unusual to the monitor, but effective and in context with existing conditions, culture, practice and other information. Seeking to preserve the body and clothes as a recognizable person where possible, Dr. Karan typically examined the body several times, only removing clothes at later stages as identification or technical examination required. Identification was relatively solid and convincing. The RS officials had much data on missing persons from several lists. They had recently added further detail to what was previously gathered. Age, height, build and the like information had been updated with occupational data, injury history, hospital records, x-rays, dental data and other data. Personal effects and clothing data were quite helpful. The dead were assumed to be almost entirely on lists of local missing. Essentially, the task was to identify 81 bodies from lists totaling probably no more than 300 people. Clued by trinkets, papers, clothing items, the RS examiners, led by Dr. Karan, looked for eccentricities of teeth, healed fractures, tattoos, healed wounds and more specific clothing items. Typically, they were able to find these clues after they had combed the bodies well in their multistage examinations. Brief examples of identifications include the following: 1. Month of death, general location of where a given soldier was found dead and probably other factors allowed the inference the victim might be a certain missing man. The suspected missing was the only one who had been a tailor. The second or third of Dr. Karan's "layered" body examinations produced a thimble from an inner pocket. 2. One of the three soldiers, probably executed at Blazevici, was found with a nearly unique ring beside his decomposed, partly disarticulated hand. There developed enough information to suggest he might be one the missing men on one of the lists. When the invited wife and her friend arrived to look at the clothing and any features she might be able to recognize, she was wearing a ring that was identical to that of the deceased, except for size.

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3. A family arrived to look at a body, carrying a list of data from a questionnaire sent them by the RS team. To one of the questions they had written that their missing had a metal appliance in one of his ankles. Dr. Karan seized his knife, peered very closely, and found a vertical scar high on one ankle. A quick cut and a deft scrape brought to light a several inch in length section of surgical chrome steel screwed to the fibula bone. In three other cases, identifications were proven by the comparison of subtle findings with clinical x-rays. Cause of death varied widely. Severe crush injuries were found on a man thought to have died when driving earth moving equipment that overturned. There were "battle injuries." A female, thought to have been a nurse killed by artillery, had shrapnel wounds. A school child killed when troops fired on a bus had appropriate wounds. One of the soldiers found at the Blazevici had what was probably a contact gunshot wound low on the back of his head. He allegedly had been executed. The mixture of wounds and other causes of death was consistent with the histories of these people dying under greatly varying circumstance.

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Photograph. 1.

Dr. Zeljko Karan, RS forensic pathologist, conducts the earth mover to insure integrity of the bodies.

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Photograph. 2.

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Dr, Page Hudson, Director of PHR's Forensic Monitoring Project, signals an associate from pit number two at Carevo Polje, Jajce.

Photograph 3

The Carevo Polje bodies were in bags in orderly arrangements.

Photograph 4.

Dr. Karann gives close inspection to a numbered label from one body bag. The bodies had been labeled ensecutively prior to burial.

Photograph 5. Chief crime scene investigetor, Milko Marie (striped sleeves), British Col. Roy parkinson (green cap), Dr. Karan (sweater), and assistant Mladjo and SlaviSa work a body pit.

Photograph 6.

Carevo Polje was a rural site on the edge of Jajce.

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Photograph 7.

Each day newly exhumed bodies were- bagged and taken to Banja Luka.

Photograph 8-.

The mini-sites at Bravnica yielded horse skeletons but none human. Dr. Karan (gloved hand)guides body probing.

Photograph.9.

Photograph. 10.

An overgrown plant nursery with greenhouse was one site probed in vain.

Mine danger warnings were posted before the plant nursery site was secured for exhumation.

Photograph 11. At the Blazevici sub-site eath has been piled over bodies of men kille and buried under the plum trees. Cold, rain and snow hampered body retrieval.

Photograph. 12. Body storage and morgue of RS at Banja Luka.

Photograph 13.

Dr. Karan explains identifying features to widow of the deceased, a common and culturally accepted (often-demanded) practice.

Photograph 14.

Dr. Karan and Milko Marie begin an autopsy in the new autopsy room in Banja Luka. The total illumination is via the plastic-covered windows.

Photograph 15.

PHR translator and assistant, Ms. Livadic, attemps to stay warm taking notes in RS autopsy room.

Photograph 16. One vicitim's identity was confirmed by matching a clinical x-ray with a healed fracture.

Photograph. 17.

Healed fracture found in association with 16, above.

Photograph 18.

An internal netal appliance confirmed identity of the deceased photographed here. Interviews with relatives of several missing soldiers elicited the clue.

Photograph. 19. A nurse was identified primarily by her gender and distinctive T-hirt. Like another Florence Nighingle, she carried a candle.

PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) mobilizes the health professions and enlists public support to protect and promote the human rights of all people. PHR believes that human rights are essential preconditions for the health and well-being of all members of the human family. We use medical and scientific methods to investigate and expose violations of human rights worldwide. We work to stop violations of human rights. We demand the perpetrators of human rights violations be held accountable for their actions under international law. Since its founding in 1986, PHR has carried out forensic investigations, including exhumations and autopsies, of alleged torture and extrajudicial executions in Afghanistan, Brazil, Israel, the former Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Iraqi Kurdistan, Kuwait, Mexico, Panama, Somalia, and Thailand. PHR has also devoted considerable energy and resources, under the auspices of its Chicago-based International Forensic Program, to assist the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (and its predecessor the U.N. War Crimes Commission) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, to collect evidence of genocide in those nations. The President is Charles Clements, M.D., M.P.H., the Vice President is Carola Eisenberg, M.D., the Executive Director is Leonard Rubenstein, J.D., the Deputy Director is Susannah Sirkin, the Advocacy Director is Holly Burkhalter, the Senior Program Associate is Richard Sollom, the Director of Communications is Barbara Ayotte, the Campaign and Education Coordinator is Gina Cummings, the Membership Development Coordinator is Steve Brown. Robert H. Kirschner is Director of PHR's International Forensic Program. Vince Iacopino, M.D., Ph.D., is Senior Medical Consultant. The director of Bosnia Projects is Laurie Vollen, M.D., M.P.H.

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