While most of us are excited about the holidays and are happy to be spending them with family and friends, others are still searching for their loved ones in mass graves all over Bosnia. After searching for two decades, chances are slim that their children, parents, siblings, husbands, wives, relatives, etc… will ever be found alive. Many are hoping that their remains be discovered in Tomasica. However, forensic experts will quit exhumations during the winter at a mass grave in northwestern Bosnia believed to be the largest found so far from the Bosnian 1992-95 war.

The remains of 430 people have been exhumed since work began in August at the Tomasica grave. The victims were Muslim Bosniaks and Croats from around the nearby town of Prijedor who were killed by Serbs trying to drive non-Serbs out of the area.

Exhumations will resume in the spring  when more bodies were expected to be found. Around 1,200 people are still missing from the Prijedor area.

My cousin’s husband’s body is believed to be one of the 430 exhumed. Although, they didn’t have a chance to do a DNA test on him yet, they did find a wedding band with her name engraved on it, still wrapping around his finger where she had placed it more than two decades ago.

Please don’t forget what these holidays are about. Count your blessings, hug your children a little tighter, a little longer tonight, tell your parents you love them. Stay safe, be happy, and don’t forget those who are still searching for their loved ones. Keep them in your prayers.

More about Tomasica mass grave. 

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