For years there have been rumours that the bodies of black Boer War concentration camp inmates were buried in an open field in Karee Avenue, Middelburg. Now there is a plan to find out if they really are there."Where there is smoke there is fire, and we aim to find that fire," said University of Pretoria archaeologist Coen Nienaber.The land belongs to the Steve Tshwete municipality and is adjacent to a cemetery that contains the remains of those who died in a concentration camp for whites.Nienaber has received funds to enable his honours students to survey the area using ground-penetration radar. But first they must get a permit from the SA Heritage Resources Agency.Nienaber said: "By using ground-penetration radar we will be able to find anomalies below ground that might indicate graves."The second phase will involve opening the graves. He said the idea was not to exhume the skeletons but to see them in place and determine their ethnicity.Nienaber believes such a find would provide a better understanding of a little-researched aspect of the Boer War. During the latter phase of the conflict, the British army began moving women and children into camps to prevent them supporting the Boer commandos. Thousands of those interred died from malnutrition and illness.While the horrors of the white concentration camps were well documented and became an important part of Afrikaner history, the suffering of the blacks during the conflict was ignored.Nienaber said it was known that a concentration camp for blacks was set up in the Middelburg area but its exact location was unknown.There is even a list of black concentration camp inmates who died but no one knows what happened to their remains."We want to make a small contribution to revealing the region's history," he said...