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Why did Bosnian Serb forces move bodies from mass graves after 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.

Bosnian Serb forces moved bodies from mass graves in September and October 1995 as part of a well-organized effort to hide the evidence of the Srebrenica genocide.1

By using heavy machinery such as backhoes and tractors to disinter the remains and relocate them to distant, secondary sites, the perpetrators sought to conceal the traces of the crimes committed against Bosniak men and boys. This systematic attempt to obstruct justice and obscure the scale of the massacre forced international investigators to spend years using complex forensic analysis—including the comparison of soil, pollen, and DNA samples—to reconstruct the events and identify the victims.1