Bitlis once again hit the headlines for the discovery of yet two more mass graves. It is believed that in the Bitlis area there are up to 300 mass graves. The two newly discovered mass graves contained 12 bodies, including three civilians. The mass graves are located in two different areas, at kilometers 20 and 25 of the Bitlis River.

According to the testimony of an anonymous witness, who was a village guard at the time the mass grave was dig, three civilians wearing suits were left in a pit dug by soldiers’ panzers in 1994. The witness along with others covered the bodies after soldiers left the scene.

The Human Rights Association (ÝHD) Bitlis Representative Hasan Ceylan stated that according to their investigation, these civilians were political prisoners brought from Muþ Prison and executed on the very spot of the mass grave.

Soldiers opened the other mass grave said to contain the remains of nine Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members who died in 1992 or 1993 following an ambush.

Ceylan said that the ÝHD applied to the prosecutor to investigate these two newly discovered mass graves.