Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #851117 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 333 pages

Amazon.com Review
On the morning of July 16, 1995, after storming the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, Serbian militiamen massacred hundreds of Muslim civilians. They buried their victims in a mass grave in a wheat field on the outskirts of town, after having been congratulated by their general, Ratko Mladic, who told them, "Finally, the time has come to take revenge on the Turks."

Mladic and his soldiers went about orchestrating other atrocities, but the dead of Srebrenica came back to accuse them through the work of an American-led team of forensic anthropologists who reconstructed erased lives from scraps of bone and cloth. Eric Stover's well-written account of the scientists' work in the killing fields of Bosnia, accompanied by photographs by journalist Gilles Peress, makes for disturbing but hopeful reading---hopeful because, through such documentation, the perpetrators may eventually be brought to justice. --Gregory McNamee

Customer Reviews

Powerful, Powerful Account of War Crimes
Stover and Peress, through searing words and photographs, have created a record of the two greatest war crimes in the conflicts that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia. The sack of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991 by Serb forces, and the subsequent mass murder of over 200 patients and staff from the local hospital is still a powerful and pivotal event, not only because of the sheer magnitude of the atrocity, but also because it was the first. Vukovar came before the siege of Sarajevo, the rape and torture camps in Prijedor and Foca and elsewhere, before the destruction of Mostar bridge, and the massacre at Srebrenica. Vukovar set the standard for the atrocities that were to come, and eight years after its destruction, the town is still a hollowed-out ruin with weeds poking through shattered buildings and one-fourth of its prewar population clinging precariously to subsistence in a destroyed economy. The siege and fall of Bosnia's Srebrenica in 1995, engineered by indicted war criminal Ratko Mladic has been amply documented elsewhere, but this book is not a military history or the reconstruction of the crime. Rather it is about the search for the missing and the identification of bodies pulled from mass graves. The authors follow the forensic specialists, the anthropologists and physicians who have created a sad but necessary specialty in this field. The exhumations are part of the search for the truth, not only for the half-grieving, half-hopeful survivors who cling to rumors about their loved ones, but for all people of compassion who hope that finding some finality, and perhaps some justice, at the bottom of these graves will serve both the living and the dead. The exhumations and identifications are carried out according to strict forensic standards so the results can be used as evidence at the Hague war crimes tribunal. If we are to forge any positive legacy from these atrocities, it may lie in allowing the children of both the victims and the executioners to lead normal lives, free from fear and revenge and poisonous hatred. Memories are long in this region, and vengeance can take decades. The woman who runs an orphanage for young Srebrenica survivors observes, "What is important now is the message the international community sends to these boys and what they then tell their own children. If you say to a child, `Look, that man there killed your father, and now he lives in your house.' What kind of message is that going to send? But if you say, `That man killed your father and that is why he is in prison.' The message is very different. So, for now, there might not be a lot of hatred or revenge, but if we don't find a way to punish those responsible for these crimes, it will surely be something we can count on in the future." To date, neither Mladic nor the "Vukovar Three" are in the tribunal's custody. For the children's sake, we can do better.

Peress' photographs convey much more than words.
Having seen first hand the atrocities carried out in the former Yugoslavia, I was surprised by the stark reality of the superb photographs in this book. Black and white images always seem much more effective than colour. The text does not confuse the reader who knows little about the work of PHR but gives an idea of how immense the scale of the identification programme is. The book tells it like it was, and still is, for not only those people who lost friends and family, but for those people involved in the grave work. Forensic Archeologists, Anthropologists, Pathologists, Technicians and SOCOs' from all over the world give their time and energy to help identify bodies and bring the perpetrators to trial. This book puts across, in words and pictures, the real horrors of what happened in the former Yugoslavia. It is a most effective way of telling the world what did go on,and how it is still affecting, and will continue to affect peoples lives for a long time to come.

Excellent
This is an amazing book, detailing evidence collection by the ICTY war crimes tribunal at two mass grave sites - Srebrenica, a predominantly Muslim town in eastern Bosnia; and Vukovar, a mixed Serb-Croat town in eastern Croatia (contrary to the view of the previous reviewer, Vukovar is neither Muslim nor Bosnian). The photos are phenomenal. After a wrenching reading, one comes away with a few scattered thoughts. Namely: 'never again, and 'thank god there is an international tribunal to carry out prosecutions for these events when domestic courts are unwilling to do so'.

There have now been two ICTY indictees arrested for Srebrenica, the trial is ongoing as of this writing. None of the 'Vukovar Three', reportedly hiding out in Belgrade have been arrested yet.

Justice is far too slow. But at least with the ICTY, there is some chance for a bit of justice after all.