Primary and Secondary Graves
Definition
In the Srebrenica context: primary graves are the original burial sites of executed victims. Secondary and tertiary graves are locations to which remains were moved by the perpetrators in September 1995 to conceal the primary graves from investigation, producing severe commingling.
- Context
- Srebrenica genocide investigations
- Primary grave
- Original execution/burial site
- Secondary/tertiary grave
- Later reburial site used to conceal the primary grave
- Timing of movement
- September 1995
- Consequence
- Severe commingling of remains
Common questions
Why did perpetrators move bodies from primary to secondary graves?+
Heavy machinery was used to dig up the primary graves and redistribute the remains across multiple secondary sites in an attempt to disguise the scale of the killings from aerial surveillance and subsequent investigation.
How does commingling affect identification work at secondary graves?+
Bodies were mechanically fragmented and mixed during the reburial, so a single individual's remains can be split across several secondary graves; DNA matching across grave sites, rather than anatomical reassociation alone, became the primary method of putting individuals back together.
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