Serbs cover up traces of their killing fields

Bosnia's mass graves: Local people are trying to conceal the suspected burial sites of Srebrenica's butchered menfolk

The banality of evil is in full view on a patch of waste ground near a hamlet west of Zvornik and the Drina river, the border between Bosnia and Serbia, despite the best efforts of those who would bury a crime that was too great to hide.

The site, known as Sahinici One, is a target for investigators from the international war crimes tribunal who are in the area seeking evidence to support indictments for genocide and crimes against humanity following the Bosnian Serb capture of the town of Srebrenica last July. The International Red Cross believes more than 3,000 men were executed by the Serbs and buried in mass graves scattered around eastern Bosnia.

Lumps of sodden, churned brown earth on a patch of waste ground between a wood and a railway line, a few tyre tracks and a rotting pile of cloth mark the alleged execution site of more than 600 men. They point also to the secondary crime of a cover-up at Sahinici One.

It is clear that the grave, the alleged grave, although the physical and testimonial evidence is compelling, has been tampered with recently, despite denials by I-For, Nato's peace implementation force. I-For has also refused to despatch any of its 60,000 troops to guard the suspected massacre sites, arguing it is not a military task and that satellite surveillance would suffice.

Perhaps 40 per cent of the site, maybe 30 by 50 yards, is covered with young grass. The blades cover mounds of mud and old vehicle tracks are clearly visible. But the rest of the site has been turned over recently: there are furrows of earth mingled with grass and moss that were not there a few days ago, when reporters visited.

The fresh digging is clear to observers; the other alterations can be detailed by one journalist, David Rohde, an American who visited the site in October on a risky trip - he was caught by the Serbs at another site and jailed for two weeks. Yesterday, in a swift and unnerving visit to Sahinici One, he described the changes that have taken place since October.

"Pretty much everything I photographed has gone ... the shoes and a pair of glasses on the field," he said. Up a grassy track, we examined what remained of the pile of jackets and walking sticks Mr Rohde saw last year. Someone had tried to camouflage the debris by tossing old chair cushions and other rubbish on top. But we found numerous strips, torn from one piece of cloth, apparently stained with blood, that match the descriptions of blindfolds on the victims given by survivors of the killings.

We found one ID card, two bank pass-books, a Yugoslav passport and two medical cards in a cursory search; they were wet and illegible, but tribunal experts may be able to decipher names. A scarf seemed to bear large bloodstains, and shoes and a pair of the knitted slippers of the kind worn at home by Muslims poked out of the pile of rubbish. The canes and jackets Mr Rohde described last year were gone.

Three known survivors from Sahinici One described being bussed to a school in the village nearby - where children yesterday milled around the playground - then dispatched in groups, blindfolded, in open trucks, to the killing field.

They say Serb soldiers lined the Muslims up in groups of 10 and machine- gunned them. Two men, one a cripple, hid under the bodies of the fallen. At night, when the Serb guards had left, they escaped through the woods. One carried the other. It took 11 days to reach government territory. The third man escaped alone.

Forensic experts from the international war crimes tribunal yesterday began investigating the alleged massacres after the fall of Srebrenica. They are expected to visit ambush sites and alleged holding centres, as well as some of the nine graves thought to contain the remains of at least 3,000 people. Another 5,000 are still missing from Srebrenica.

Almost identical stories told by a few survivors of the mass executions paint an unspeakably grim picture of the enclave's fate under the Bosnian Serb army commander, General Ratko Mladic, who has been indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity. He was seen at the school by the survivors.

The 45,000 people crammed into Srebrenica during the war survived primarily by raiding nearby Serb villages for food. Local Serbs were killed in such attacks. It is the deaths of those Serbs that General Mladic was apparently seeking to avenge after the fall of Srebrenica.

Almost as appalling as the campaign is the implication that hundreds, if not thousands, of local Serbs knew what was happening. The executions and burials did not take place in isolated areas but close to main roads, villages, and houses.

The executions were a huge operation. Many mass graves are located between 30 and 100km from Srebrenica and the UN camp at Potocari, where the desperate civilians vainly sought the protection of Dutch UN peace- keepers after the Serbs attacked the town.

About 15,000 others, mostly men, tried to walk to safety. They were attacked by Serbs and many were captured. Survivors say they were bussed to sites all over eastern Bosnia, lined up, shot, and then dumped in mass graves.