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How did scientists use soil and tissue samples to investigate the Srebrenica genocide?

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Two women in headscarves embrace and mourn over a green coffin among rows of identical coffins at the Potocari cemetery during the Srebrenica massacre mass funeral. — Srebrenica genocide Women mourning over a coffin before the mass funeral for 136 newly identified victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, 2015.

Following the Srebrenica genocide, Bosnian Serb forces attempted to conceal evidence by using heavy machinery to exhume mass graves and relocate remains to distant sites. This deliberate destruction of crime scenes created a complex challenge for investigators attempting to account for the victims.1

To reconstruct these events, Western scientists conducted years of laborious analysis. By performing detailed comparisons of soil and tissue samples, alongside evidence such as pollen, shell casings, and clothing fragments, researchers were able to link disinterred remains to their original burial locations. This scientific process was essential in mapping how bodies had been moved among an estimated 80 mass grave sites.1

Furthermore, the International Commission on Missing Persons utilized DNA analysis of tissue samples to identify more than 7,000 individual victims by 2023, providing families with answers and ensuring that the scale of the atrocities could be documented with forensic certainty.1