An academic from the University of Aberdeen has spoken of his visit to help uncover a number of mass graves in Bosnia.
Dr Julian Scott, Research Assistant, Department of Geography & Environment, was part of an international team of experts in satellite imagery, geology and forensic archaeology involved in using new methods to find the location of four sites.
Joint teams of satellite imagery experts, geology experts and forensic archaeologists from the UK and the US completed the research visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina to investigate new methods of locating and mapping mass graves. The team was involved in assessing changes in the composition of the ground surface.
Experts from the University of Birmingham and Applied Analysis Incorporated (AAI), a US private company specialising in processing satellite images, were also part of the multi-disciplinary project team organised by the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).
One of the most difficult aspects of finding and identifying victims of conflict or human rights abuses is often locating the graves, which have frequently been hidden by those responsible. In many cases in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the bodies have also been moved from one location to another in order to cover-up evidence of the crime. Most mass graves found in Bosnia-Herzegovina so far have been located based on information supplied by survivors or other witnesses.
Dr Scott explained: “I travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina to locate secondary mass graves, where bodies had been dug up and reburied to hide the crimes.
“Some of the graves had been approximately located by aerial photography and some by eyewitnesses, but the areas of disturbance were large, much greater than the graves themselves, and were now not visible, some 10 years later.
“The resistivity mapping, a technique often shown on Time Team, successfully located at least four graves. I was the main interpreter of the resistivity mapping, and the only applied geophysicist in the team.” He worked closely with, and under direction from Professor John Hunter, a forensic archaeologist from the University of Birmingham.
The team also carried out 2D and 3D electrical images on some of the graves. These show the depths and variations in fill, for example, where the bodies are. These images are being processed and will form part of a report to the ICPM (International Commission on Missing Persons) in Bosnia as well as future publications on detection and imaging of mass graves.
Dr Emma Tetlow, an archaeologist/botanist from the University of Birmingham, was also on site to investigate the use of vegetation changes in grave location, along with Ms Amanda Reddick also from Birmingham. The team was also joined by two people working for the American Air force who were assessing the possibility of locating more graves from satellite imagery using techniques already being employed in Iraq.
The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), set up after Bosnia's 1992-95 war, organised the project.
Satellite imagery and spectral analysis, which measures changes in the composition of the surface of the ground, have recently been used to locate mass graves in Iraq. The multi-disciplinary ICMP project seeks to improve and expand on such techniques through plant and vegetation analysis, testing of the conductivity of soil and computer mapping analysis. Although spectral analysis is more effective in the desert environment of Iraq, in countries with more vegetation, such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, satellite imagery techniques will be more useful if patterns of plant growth associated with mass graves are better understood.
Professor John Hunter, from Birmingham University, who led the research team, said: "It's coming up to almost 10 years since the massacre of Srebrenica and that was the point at which something in the order of 30,000 people went missing.
"There are still a lot of them unresolved and our job has been to support the ICMP in trying to find where the graves are and to repatriate the victims."
The initial research phase of the scheme was completed on Monday this week and will be followed by further analysis.