Families bury 80 Bosnian war victims

Families bury 80 Bosnian war victims

Forensic experts said skulls showed that many of the people “were executed by shots to the head, some two or three times.”

The remains of those buried Saturday were identified through DNA analysis and returned to their families, who decided to bury them together.

The rest of the bodies from the mass grave are still waiting to be identified. Out of the 80 victims, 77 are Muslim Bosniaks and three are Catholic Croats.

Edin Zahirovi, 25, came to bury his grandfather Hajro, who was 63 when he was killed in 1992.

"I was 10 when they killed grandpa. Now after 15 years, at least I have a place where I can visit him and pray," he said.

Amira Vulin, 41, fled Brčko before the killing began. She returned after the war and attended the funeral Saturday because as some of her friends were among those who were buried. Vulin lost her father, uncle and two cousins. Their bodies have yet to be found.

"My father was killed in front of our house in May 1992. A Serb friend told me after the war that the body was then loaded on a truck and taken somewhere, he doesn't know where. He also told me who killed my father and those who committed the crime are still living here," the Associated Press quoted her as saying.

More than 500 Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats from Brčko remain missing since the 1992-1995 Bosnian war when Bosnian Serb forces seized the town and expelled non-Serb civilians.