Investigators in the Balkans are recruiting Bradford University students to help them excavate mass graves in Kosovo and bring war criminals to justice.

An expert on the massacres in the war torn region will visit Bradford on Thursday to talk to scientists at the university's Department of Archaeological Sciences.

Jose Pablo Baraybar, who works for the United Nations International War Crimes Tribunal in the Balkans, also hopes to sign up post-graduate students to his team investigating atrocities in the region.

The move comes after Dr Jan Lowe, from Bradford Royal Infirmary, travelled to Bosnia to examine bodies believed to be the victims of war crimes. He was invited to carry out the work by the UN's War Crimes Commission.

Professor Mark Pollard, of the Department of Archaeological Science, said: "Some of the graves may only be a year old. The bodies will probably be intact with clothing and most of the tissue, although they will be in a terrible condition."

Some of the graves in Kosovo are thought to hide the remains of thousands of innocent victims of genocide.

Prof Pollard said the work was vital for suffering families and hopefully to bring justice to the perpetrators of the violence.

"What they will do is give the victims some dignity by allowing their families to give them a proper burial according to their faith," he said.

The students, who are all taking a masters degree in forensic archaeology, will have to record everything they see and find with painstaking accuracy in order to identify bodies and discover how they died. They will be working alongside war crimes investigators and it is hoped their work will provide the evidence to secure prosecutions.

"It is not just about dignity, it's about justice. There is a lot of information that can be gathered, but like any criminal investigation it has to be done properly if it is to used as evidence," said Prof Pollard.

Mr Baraybar is expected to speak to about half a dozen students about joining his team. If they sign up, the students will be subjected to a rigorous selection procedure which will weed out people who are not able to deal with coming face to face with horrendous war crimes.

"Obviously it will be a difficult job. You have to have the right sort of mental attitude and look at it like a job," said Prof Pollard.

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