MASS GRAVE EXHUMATIONS RESUME THIS WEEK - BOSNIAN MEDIA

SARAJEVO, Aug 9 (Hina) - Teams of forensic experts this week are resuming the tracing of mass graves in Bosnia-Herzegovina's Prijedor and Foca areas believed to contain the bodies of hundreds of Muslims and Croats whom Bosnian Serb troops killed at the start of the 1990s war, Sarajevo-based media said on Monday. Dnevni Avaz quoted the chairman of the state commission for missing persons, Amor Masovic, as saying the biggest mass grave to date had been discovered near Foca in southeastern Bosnia. The first buried bodies were traced on Sunday, confirming information that the location contains the bodies of hundreds of Muslims. Masovic assumes many of the bodies might be those of 350 inmates of the infamous detention centre in Foca who are still listed as missing. The location discovered on Sunday is important also because the bodies were found with special equipment whereas previous digging, undertaken on the basis of testimonies, had yielded no results. Exhumations near Bratunac in eastern Bosnia are also continuing. According to Vecernje Novine daily, 125 whole bodies and parts of 75 have been exhumed at the Biljecevo grave. The commission for missing persons of Bosnia's Croat-Muslim entity has announced exhumations of Muslim and Croat remains will be carried out on 10 locations in the Prijedor area, northwestern Bosnia, this week. According to data collected by authorities and provided by the families of the missing, Serb troops killed 3,227 people in Prijedor area villages where Muslims or Croats accounted for the majority population. A total of 1,589 bodies have been found in graves in the Prijedor, Banja Luka and Bosanski Novi areas to date. The remains of 500 persons are awaiting DNA identification at Sanski Most.