Hodzici Road 1 is a secondary mass grave, located near the village of Snagovo, some 17 kilometres north-west of the Bosnian city of Zvornik. The grave was originally found by troops from NATO’s Stabilisation Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFOR, in 1998, while diverting a road around a landslide. Overall, there are seven known mass graves in the area and all are secondary sites.
The grave site was named Hodzici Road 1 because it is also close to the village of Hodzici.
The gravesite remains unmarked and lies next to the road that leads to Hodzici.
Although initially discovered by the SFOR and investigators from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the exhumation was conducted in 2006 by the Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons. The site is also known as Snagovo 4.
The exhumation in November 2006 resulted in the remains of 90 people being identified. All the victims are believed to have been Bosniaks killed by Bosnian Serb forces following the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995.
DNA analysis carried out by the International Commission on Missing Persons showed connections between this secondary gravesite and the Lazete 2 primary gravesite. According to the ICTY’s forensic report on Srebrenica exhumations, this means that the remains of one individual were found in at least two different graves. The report said that human remains were dug up at the Lazete 2 primary mass grave and then transferred to Hodzici Road, some 10 kilometres away.
Bosniak men who had been captured were transported on July 14, 1995 to the Grbavci school in the village of Orahovac then killed and buried in fields known as Lazete. Forensic analysis of soil and pollen samples, evidence and aerial images of creation and disturbance dates further revealed that bodies from the Lazete 1 and Lazete 2 graves were later removed and reburied at secondary graves along the Hodzici Road.
So far, the ICTY and domestic courts in the Balkans have sentenced a total of 47 people to more than 700 years in prison, plus five life sentences, for Srebrenica crimes.