Recovery efforts have been further hampered due to past attempts to conceal evidence of the mass murders, leading to the remains becoming misplaced and mishandled. Furthermore, the Hague Tribunal – set up to prosecute crimes committed during the Yugoslav war – recently admitted to intentionally destroying more than a thousand personal items belonging to the victims of Srebrenica.

However, Olga Kravan, spokeswoman for the Chief prosecutor at the Tribunal, justifies the decision. “We are talking about pieces of clothing. We are talking about things that were just in such a state that they had to be disposed of. There was nothing else that could have been done. The vast majority of them came from mass graves. They were deteriorating and presented a health risk.”

Ten years ago the International Commission of Missing Persons took on the job of identifying bodies from The Hague. The Commission admits that the evidence the Court destroyed, while not essential, would have been useful.

The mortuary in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina stores some two and a half thousand body bags containing unidentified remains. Inside one bag there may often be parts of more than one person. In the last decade, more than 12,000 body bags have passed through the mortuary.

The Hague Tribunal thus faces a hefty task. When its mandate runs out at the end of next year, its legacy will focus not only on the criminals it prosecuted, but also on the victims it was set up to help.