A suspected mass grave has been found in a deep cave in northwestern Bosnia near one of the worst Serb death camps. Investigators say it could contain the remains of up to 120 Muslims and Croats.
In an apparent attempt to conceal the grave, someone threw the bodies of animals and rubbish on top of the human remains and set off an explosion at the cave, a Bosnian war crimes researcher says.The Bosnian government war crimes committee, which found the site near the village of Lusci Palanka, claimed the animal remains were a ploy by the Serbs to mask the cave's true horrors.
The committee gave Associated Press Television a videotape showing the inside of a deep cave containing piles of bones.
The cave is near Omarska, one of the most notorious Serb-run camps. The detention camp was closed in late 1992 following international outrage over pictures of emaciated inmates.
Experts say 11,500 people are missing from Omarska. Survivors of the camp claim prisoners were brutally killed on a daily basis.
Bosnian authorities believe that two busloads of men who disappeared from the Omarska camp on the eve of its closure could be buried in Lusci Palanka.
Jadranka Cigelj, a Bosnian Croat lawyer who survived Omarska and now lives in Zagreb, Croatia, gathers evidence to help war crimes investigators.
She said large trucks would drive away bodies daily "in a direction unknown to us at the time . . . those who died during the day of their injuries, and at night those who were killed."
"On average there were 20 to 30 bodies every day," she said.
Meanwhile Thursday, Serbs in Vukovar, Croatia, cursed the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and threw rocks at her motorcade when she toured the last Serb-held area of Croatia.
Ambassador Madeleine Albright's outspoken approach has led Serbs to consider her their biggest American foe. Albright was walking along the streets of the eastern town of Vukovar when the encounter occurred.
"You b-----," angry Serbs shouted when Albright reached an open-air market downtown. "You fascist." "Go back to Croatia."
She quickly returned to her car as the crowd started throwing rocks at her motorcade.