Identifying the fallen

Short abstract

As the Iraqis discover a mass grave in a village south of Baghdad, scientists in Bosnia are still undertaking the painstaking task of trying to identify bodies found in mass graves in the former Yugoslavia

Tuzla, in northeast Bosnia-Hercegovina, has become the temporary resting home for thousands of bodies associated with the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. Between 5000 and 6000 unidentified bodies are contained in more than 12 000 body bags of human remains that are currently stored in giant refrigerators, hospital morgues, and a disused salt mine.

Figure 1.

A body bag is carried from a mass grave on a remote mountainside in the Srpska Republic (above), while bodies already recovered are stored in a giant refridgerator in^M Tuzla, central Bosnia (below), where they await identification

PHOTOGRAPHS KEVIN WEAVER

But gradually a unique DNA profiling system—the largest of its kind—run by the International Commission for Missing Persons in the Former Yugoslavia is giving the bodies their names and allowing their families to discover what happened to them and to organise proper burials.

The Podrinje Identification Project, which is based in Tuzla, includes a team of international forensic anthropologists, morgue technicians, and criminologists, as well as laboratory staff.

In April the first mass burial of 600 people killed in the Srebrenica massacres took place in a huge ceremony at Potacari near Srebrenica. The work of the commission made this event possible, and it is hoped that another 4000 to 5000 people can be buried near the time of the anniversary of the massacres, 11 July.

Dr Izet Eminovic, head of the DNA Laboratory in Tuzla's clinical centre, says the project began to work at full capacity in April 2002. It achieved an impressive 1600 DNA matches last year, bringing the total to 2353. It can now analyse 200 DNA samples a day. With more money for chemicals and kits the project could process twice that figure, Dr Eminovic says.

However, an acute financial crisis could mean that production will drop to 8% of its capacity in June, because of the prohibitive cost of reagents supplied by German and Californian biotechnology companies.

Staff use two instruments—a Gene Analyser 3100 and a Gene Analyser 310—to match the DNA profiles (obtained from blood samples) of relatives of people thought to have been killed with bone samples from the bodies found in the graves.

The raw data are analysed by the team's DNA analysts, put into a proper format, and entered into the DNA databases. The central computer in Tuzla compares the bone and blood DNA databases to determine whether there are any matches.

Dr Eminovic's team has five DNA analysts: two molecular biologists, a biologist, a medical doctor, and a chemical engineer. Dr Eminovic has a doctoral degree in gene research and recently discovered a new gene pattern, which is registered at Heidelberg.

He says that the commission estimates that more than 40 000 people are still missing in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. A total of 43 000 DNA blood samples have been taken from relatives since April 2002, but Dr Eminovic estimates that they may need as many as 100 000 samples to complete their task. This is due to the lack of dental and medical records and the fact that many of the body parts have been mixed up.

Many of the mass graves were dug up by the Serbs and bodies moved to other sites as they tried to hide their crimes. Consequently bodies were chopped up and mingled. More than 11 000 bar coded bone samples have been extracted from body parts, usually from the femur, and each is accompanied by four digital photos of the bone to aid identification.

Dr Eminovic says: “We use a unique bar coding system for both blood and bone samples at our international coordinating centre in Tuzla, which ensures that we don't know whether the samples come from Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, or Serbia, so allaying fears of bias or of any possible means of identification of even the sample's nationality.” The code is broken only when a match is found. The computer in Tuzla then determines who the blood sample belongs to.

“Initially the Serbs refused to cooperate in the giving of blood samples, but this bar code system assured them of its impartiality and secrecy,” Dr Eminovic adds.

Blood sample donors are asked to fill out two forms giving personal information and granting permission. These forms accompany each sample, to aid identification. This coding system has also allowed Serb doctors to work closely with the commission for the last two years. All sides in this conflict have faith in the impartiality of the commission, and in this the commission has achieved what nobody thought possible.

At the end of March a group of UK experts led by John Hunter, professor of ancient history and archaeology at the University of Birmingham, took ground penetrating radar and other advanced technology to Bosnia, to find mass graves and to document their contents. The radar will enable sites such as underground mines, petrol stations, hotels, and carparks—some of which are controversial—to be tested. Benjamin Swift, a forensic pathologist from the University of Leicester, is the lead investigator in testing the human bones to assess the “life history” of missing persons.