Croatia exhumes serb mass grave after 20 yesrs

Croatian forensic experts have exhumed the remains of 56 ethnic Serbs, believed to be mostly civilians killed at the end of the country's 1990s independence war, officials said Wednesday.

Croatia's veterans affairs ministry said the bodies -- exhumed in a bid to identify them -- were removed from two mass graves at a cemetery in the central region of Glina where they were buried in 1995, at the end of the war.

The victims were ethnic Serbs killed during a Croatian military operation in August 1995, the Serbian commission for missing people said in a statement.

The operation, dubbed "Storm", saw Croatian forces liberate a key area held by Serb rebels and practically ended the 1991-1995 war.

The one-week exhumation, carried out at the cemetery in the village of Gornje Seliste, concluded on Tuesday. Serbian representatives were also present during the proceedings.

The victims were re-buried at the cemetery after DNA samples were taken, the veterans' ministry said.

After identification, their families will be consulted over what to do with the bodies.

Croatia's proclamation of independence from the former Yugoslavia sparked the four-year war with Belgrade-backed ethnic Serbs who opposed the move. The conflict claimed about 20,000 lives.

Hundreds of mostly elderly Serb civilians were killed in the aftermath of Operation Storm, while more than 200,000 others fled Croatia during and after it. Around half of those who fled have since returned.