MASS GRAVES AND OTHER ATROCITIES IN BOSNIA
US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Washington, DC
Wednesday, DECEMBER 6, 1995
STATEMENT OF DR. BARBARA C. WOLF FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST
Dr. WOLF. Thank you, Mr. Smith. It's certainly an
honor to be asked to be here with you today and to share
with you the observations of my colleagues and myself when
we visited certain towns in Bosnia and Croatia 2 months
ago. More specifically, I want to share with you our
experience in working with our civilian physician
colleagues from those nations at the sites of a series of
mass human graves.
I think we can probably put the lights down a little
bit. Yes, that's great. Thank you.
Between October 8 and 13, 1995, I joined a group of
American physician-scientists on a trip to Croatia and
Bosnia under the sponsorship of AmeriCares. [See Slide 1.]
AmeriCares is an international humanitarian aid group based
in New Canaan, Connecticut. It is a private, non-profit
disaster relief organization providing immediate response
to emergency medical needs, and also supporting long-term
health care programs around the world.
The group with whom I traveled consisted of several
other forensic specialists: Dr. Michael Baden, the co-
director of the Forensic Sciences Unit of the New York
State Police; Dr. Henry Lee, the chief criminalist for the
Connecticut State Police; Dr. Moses Schanfield, a DNA
specialist from Denver; and Dr. David Rowe, a Professor of
Pediatrics from the University of Connecticut.
We went to Croatia and Bosnia to work with and lend
our support to the forensic team from the Split Clinical
Hospital in Split, Croatia. While there, we assisted in the
excavation of bodies at mass graves, assisted in autopsies,
and then worked with the Croatian forensic team in meeting
with families to assist them in identifying the bodies.
We also worked with the Croatian scientists in their
DNA laboratory, which they had set up a year ago with some
guidance from Dr. Lee to deal with those cases that could
not be identified by traditional means. [See Slide 2.]
We visited three newly-found mass graves which
contained the bodies of Croatians killed in 1991 and 1992.
Two of the graves, one containing 34 bodies and the other,
3, were located near Kupres, Bosnia. The third mass grave
we visited was in Petrinja, Croatia, a 2-hour helicopter
flight from Kupres. The purpose of this visit was to assist
in the identification of those bodies found in the mass
graves being uncovered in areas previously controlled by
opposing armies.
Our goal was to identify the dead and thereby help
heal the living. In many instances, these were families
who, for the past 2 or 3 years, had been holding out the
hope that their loved ones might still be alive. Some had
been told that their relatives had been taken prisoner. Our
task was to help identify these bodies, to allow the
families some kind of closure.
My purpose in sharing these experiences today is not
to make any comments or give opinions regarding the peace
process. Likewise, I'm not here to seek penalties for
anyone or to assess blame for these deaths. This was not
the goal of the trip. We did not examine these bodies for
evidence of torture or even for specific causes of death.
This was a policy decision made prior to our journey. Our
job was purely to work toward the identification of these
bodies and to return them to their families for proper
burial.
In case I sound unmoved by this experience, let me say
that despite a decade in forensic pathology and dealing
with death, there were many sights that I was unprepared
for. In one instance, there was the body of an 82-year-old
blind woman in one of the mass graves. Also, we were being
assisted by a soldier who, while excavating one of the
graves, had found the body of his missing civilian brother.
The entire trip was a very moving one, and one that I
think certainly most people in this country could not truly
comprehend or understand, and that one who has never lived
through the experience of war could envision. My purpose
today is to give a clinical perception of the problems of
the people of Bosnia and Croatia in the aftermath of war.
The peace process is really just a beginning of some
of the work to be done for these people. At this point,
there are many thousands of soldiers and civilians still
missing. As peace arrives in the region, more and more of
these graves will be found. It is quite probable that this
identification will be going on for many years, as we are
still identifying soldiers from the Vietnam era. The sheer
number of the missing and the lack of resources dictates a
long road for this process. [See Slide 3.]
I'd now like to show you some of the sights from these
visits. This shot was taken on the first day of the trip as
we approached Kupres, Bosnia, which is a town in
southwestern Bosnia that had been captured by the Serbs
from the Croatians in 1992. The front lines had recently
pulled back from this area, and several mass graves had
been discovered.
One of the graves containing 34 bodies had been
excavated the previous week. It is my understanding from
media reports that the 34 had been ordered executed while
their relatives watched. [See Slide 4.] As we came to the
town of Kupres, it was apparent that all of the region, all
the houses, had been shelled, with the buildings being
essentially in ruin. [See Slide 5.]
Although some of the people appeared to be attempting
to get back to their homes, basically all the structures
had been destroyed. This is the mayor of Kupres talking
with Dr. Lee and Dr. Schanfield. [See Slide 6.] We found
that the people of Kupres, as well as the people in all the
areas that we visited, were very hospitable and extremely
grateful for our help. Such was the appreciation of the
mayor of Kupres that we were served a luncheon of lamb and
local wines in the middle of a war zone.
This is the site of the grave that had been excavated
the week prior to our arrival at the edge of Kupres. [See
Slide 7.]This was the grave that had contained 34 bodies. A
family member of one of the deceased had marked the grave
with this cross. The bodies had been excavated,
preliminarily autopsied at the site, and then moved to the
Split Clinical Hospital where we would later work with the
forensic team on these bodies.
The make-up of those in this grave cut across many
lines: soldier and civilian, man and woman, adult and
child, although there was a predominance of young males
because of the soldiers. While we were not looking for
specific causes of death, it was apparent that most of
these people had died from multiple wounds, including
gunshots and bayoneting. A conclusive determination of
cause of death would also have been difficult because many
of the bodies had been bulldozed and attempts had been made
to burn the bodies.
This was a makeshift autopsy table at the edge of the
mass grave in Kupres that had been used by the Split
forensic team to conduct some of the initial examinations
of the bodies. [See Slide 8.] It should be noted that while
both traditional forensic pathology methods as well as DNA
technology was available, the primary process used in the
identification was largely direct visual examination by the
families.
Most of these people came from towns that had been
largely destroyed, so in most cases no dental or other
medical records existed to work with. In many cases, we
actually had to show family members a remnant of clothing
to see if they could recognize it. [See Slide 9.]
While we were visiting this first mass grave site in
Kupres, word came that another grave, which was later found
to contain the bodies of three soldiers, had been
pinpointed by Serb officials during a recent prisoner
exchange. We went to that site, changed into scrub suits at
the scene, and assisted in the excavation of these bodies.
I should take the opportunity to note that these
bodies were not in any way extensively autopsied as we
would do in this country. I recently participated in the
recovery of one body in a criminal case in upstate New York
where the removal of the body alone took 12 hours and the
autopsy another day. This kind of precision was not
available in Bosnia and Croatia simply because of the
enormity of the numbers.
As I mentioned earlier, our visit was greatly noted
and appreciated. There was a great deal of media attention
given to our visit. An article appeared the next day
following our visit to Kupres in the local paper, showing
us at the grave site assisting in the excavation. [See
Slide 10.]
Later that afternoon, we were taken by military
helicopter to Petrinja, a town in north-central Croatia
over the border from Bosnia where another large mass grave
had been discovered. [See Slide 11.] At Petrinja, we
arrived in a cornfield in the recently liberated region
where local soldiers had identified another mass grave
site. Although we did not stay for the entire excavation,
it was later determined that the site contained nearly 100
bodies. [See Slide 12.]
I was told that the location of the grave had been
determined by two Croatian soldiers who had been Serb
prisoners of war and who had been forced to help collect
and bury the bodies at the site. [See Slide 13.] When we
arrived, a forensic team from Zagreb, the nearest forensic
center located to the north of Petrinja, was working to
excavate the bodies. Again, the make-up of the bodies in
the grave included soldiers and civilians of all ages and
both sexes.
Our timing was good. We were told that before our
arrival, a dog had been blown up at the site by a landmine,
and media reports noted that just hours before, three anti-
tank grenades were recovered at the site, presumably put
there to prevent anyone from excavating the bodies. The
bodies in this grave were also from 1991. They were in very
bad shape, both because of decomposition and because of the
burial process, and consisted predominantly of skeletonized
remains or partial skeletons.
Because teeth tend to be relatively resistant to
decomposition, they were our most useful tool in
identifying these bodies. Although dental records were
essentially nonexistent, sometimes members of a family
might remember, for example, a characteristic front tooth
of a loved one and could recognize the person that way. In
one case, a dentist who had worked on several of the
missing people came to the autopsy room and was able to
identify his own dental work on some of the bodies. [See
Slide 14.]
This is closer to the first layer of the mass of
bodies in this grave. You can see the outline of several of
the bodies in the top layer at the upper center of the
slide. The two things that really struck me as we first
encountered this grave was the jumbled fashion in which
these bodies were stacked one on top of the other, and the
stench of almost 100 bodies with 4 years of decay. It
seemed, at least to me, reminiscent of movies of the World
War II concentration camps with layers and layers of bodies
jumbled in a grave.
The following day, we returned to the Clinical
Hospital in Split, Croatia, to work with their forensic
team on the 34 bodies recovered the previous week in
Kupres. Officials had notified members of the families in
this town who were missing relatives that they could come
to Split and attempt to identify their missing loved ones.
This slide shows the large refrigerated truck where
the bodies were kept prior to examination at the medical
center. [See Slide 15.] The truck is that long white
structure across the middle of the slide. This is looking
inside this trailer, this refrigerated truck, showing rows
and rows of bodies in body bags. [See Slide 16.]
If this were the United States, this would have been a
month's work for me. At Split, this turned out to be
essentially a morning or a day's work. This is not because
of lack of caring of the forensic team or lack of
sophisitication. It was just that given the enormous number
of people to identify as many people as possible without
specifically autopsying each body.
This is the autopsy room in the Clinical Hospital in
Split. [See Slide 17.] There were probably five or six
bodies at a time on tables in this room. These are the
members of our team, myself on the right; Dr. Lee and Dr.
Baden in the middle working with Dr. Simun Andelinovic, who
was the chief forensic pathologist in Split, preparing to
identify one of the bodies. [See Slide 18.]
We arranged the bodies on tables in the autopsy room
in a way we hoped would be the least grotesque to family
members. [See Slide 19.] This is the body of a dead
Croatian soldier. [See Slide 20.] His helmet is on his
chest, and although it really doesn't show well here,
there's a large bullet hole in the helmet. This is a shot
of the same soldier showing substantial facial trauma. [See
Slide 21.]
As I mentioned, in many of these cases, identification
came down to a family member just recognizing a piece of
jewelry or a piece of clothing. In this case, the wife of
this Croatian soldier who's shown here feet first was able
to identify her husband just by recognizing his Nike socks.
[See Slide 22, 23.]
While we were examining these decomposing bodies from
several years earlier, we were also reminded of the
continued ongoing violence nearby. The adjacent autopsy
room was the site of the autopsies of soldiers being killed
in the current fighting. This was a soldier who had been
killed the day before with multiple shrapnel wounds. [See
Slide 24.]
As a forensic pathologist, I'm used to families coming
to an autopsy room to examine or identify their relatives,
but having five or six bodies on tables and dozens of
families rotating through an autopsy room was an experience
I wasn't prepared for. It was much more difficult because
of the language barrier. Dr. Andelinovic, who is in the
center of the photograph, tried to serve as an interpreter
for us, but with six bodies and many families, it was
essentially impossible. [See Slide 25.]
We showed families whatever we could find to help in
the identification process-frequently, teeth of the
deceased. The thing that was most difficult was that
because of the language barrier, we couldn't offer any
comfort to the family members. [See Slide 26.] Despite the
grisly nature of the bodies before them, the family members
wanted very much to spend time with their identified loved
ones.
I should note that the mission in this case was
largely a success. Before the end of the day, 27 of the 34
bodies in the first mass grave, and all 3 of the soldiers
from the second grave, were identified. DNA testing is
continuing on the remaining bodies yet unidentified.
The people in Bosnia and Croatia have been through one
of the worst wars of the century with cruelty and man's
inhumanity to man reminiscent of World War II. I would
appeal to this Commission and to all the governments of the
world to understand the plight of these people and to help
make the resources available to them that will be needed
probably for years to come in working with and identifying
these victims. Thank you.
1995 Congressional Hearings