Expert disputes number of Bosnian victims in remaining Srebrenica graves

Expert disputes number of Bosnian victims in remaining Srebrenica graves - daily
BBC Monitoring Europe - Political - June 21, 2005, Tuesday

Text of report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA

Belgrade, 21 June: The exhumations around Srebrenica have uncovered the bodily remains of at least 1,883 persons and anything else is supposition, including Richard Wright's claim that the bodily remains of 2,751 persons are in the remaining graves, according to the expert opinion of pathologist Zoran Stankovic.

"Basically, there is no scientifically established methodology according to which the precise number of those buried in unexhumed graves can be determined, especially when talking about decomposing and mangled human bodies," it says in the expert analysis, which forensic expert Stankovic defended before the Hague tribunal in October 2000 and parts of which are published in today's [Belgrade-based daily] Vecernje novosti.

Stankovic assessed that Richard Wright's report, which maintains that the remaining graves contained the bodily remains of another 2,751 persons, was a technical mistake which can only be corrected by exhumations and forensic analysis.

"Only in this way will we establish the correct number of those who died in Srebrenica and arrive at the truth about Srebrenica," the conclusion of Stankovic's expert analysis says.