ICTY TO BEGIN EXHUMATIONS OF MASS GRAVES IN BOSNIA, CROATIA

ZAGREB, July 5 (Hina) - A team of about 20 investigators and experts from the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will begin to exhume the victims buried in a series of alleged mass grave sites in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia on Sunday July 7, the Hague-based Tribunal said in a statement on Friday. The exhumations are expected to last up to three months and will be carried out by the Office of the Prosecutor with the assistance of the national authorities, the NATO-led peace implementation force (IFOR), the UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) and the Boston-based non-governmental organization Physicians for Human Rights which will oversee the forensic side of the operations. The main purpose of the exhumations is to determine the cause and time of death, identify victims and collect any other physical evidence associated with the mass grave sites. The first site to be exhumed is in the Srebrenica area of eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, the statement said. (hina) vm jn 051223 MET jul 96