REPORT: Bosnia's Book of the Dead
- From: craig <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 20:00:41 -0700
REPORT: Bosnia's Book of the Dead
21 06 2007
Twelve years after the war ended, Bosnia and Herzegovina is getting
close to ascertaining the total number of those who died.
By Nidzara Ahmetasevic in Sarajevo
Almost four years since work began on the Population Loss Project
1991-1995, the Research and Documentation Centre, IDC will present the
Bosnian Book of the Dead in Sarajevo on Thursday, June 21.
Justice Report can reveal that, as of the end of June 2007, the book
contained 97,207 names of Bosnia and Herzegovina's citizens
representing victims of war.
The rich database classifies war victims by status, ethnic
affiliation, gender, age and so on.
Although analysts consider that the database will reduce the
possibility that the numbers of war victims could be manipulated for
political reasons, they, at the same time, warn that the database is
still not complete.
In any case, a brisk discussion is expected in Bosnia in Herzegovina
about the possible ways of using the data for the determination of
truth and for reconciliation.
Mirsad Tokaca, IDC president, has said that the aim of the project was
to identify each single victim and prevent any type of manipulation of
numbers, which he considers has been the case for years.
"This is not a story about numbers, but about citizens who died during
the past period," Tokaca told Justice Report.
Three international experts - Patrick Ball, Ewa Tabeau and Philip
Verwimp - all with rich experience in similar projects, have reviewed
the database and have assessed it favourably.
"This database represents an extraordinary achievement of all those
who were involved in its preparation," the experts have said, adding
that some improvements are still possible.
The trio considers that the data collected by IDC gives a "good
overview of war happenings related to victims and the way the
individuals died".
Verwimp, a researcher in the field of political economy in developing
and post-war countries, human rights and genocide, warns that the IDC
database does not mean that work on determining the number of war
victims in BiH is over.
"Many consider the number of 97,207 as the overall total of victims of
the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, which is not correct. For several
reasons, this number should be seen as an approximation of a minimum
and not as a complete total," he told Justice Report.
Tabeau believes that the information from the database can be an
efficient tool for fighting myths about the war.
"These results might be an extremely efficient tool in fighting myths,
but only if there is a will in the society to deal with the past in
terms of facts, not myths," said Tabeau, who worked as a project
manager in the demographic unit of the Hague tribunal's prosecution
office. In this role, she studied the demographic consequences of
conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, with a main focus on the number of
victims during the wars in this region.
However, even though more than 90,000 names have been included in the
database, the IDC does not consider that its work on the project has
been concluded.
"The database remains open and whoever contacts us and offers new data
we are willing to consider it and add new names," said the IDC's
Tokaca.
Playing with numbers
Similar databases exist in several post-war countries. In 1999,
research was undertaken to determine the exact number of victims in
Rwanda, Kibuye province, and the project was called Victims of
Genocide in Kibuye.
Similar efforts have been undertaken in Northern Ireland in 2000, in
South Africa within a Report of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, in El Salvador in 1997 and in Guatemala by the Commission
for Historical Clarification in 1998.
Justice Report has found out that similar databases might soon be
available in Serbia, Croatia and Kosovo, where work is already being
done along the same lines as those applied in BiH.
Twelve years after signing of the Dayton Peace Accord, the exact
number of victims of the three and a half year-long war in Bosnia and
Herzegovina has still not been determined. During the war, local
authorities in Sarajevo publicly mentioned, on several occasions, that
about 200,000 people had been killed.
Up to now, this estimate is the one mentioned most frequently by the
domestic and international public, although it has been denied by
various parties on several occasions. However, it is not the only
estimate we have. Thus, estimations varied from 25,000 to 250,000.
According to Tokaca, this "playing with numbers" was the main reason
why the IDC decided to collect details and names of victims.
It is significant that local authorities have not done much to help
the research, although they did not try to prevent it. Instead, the
Book of the Dead has been compiled with support from foreign
governments, mainly those in Norway and Switzerland.
The research itself started in 2004. More than 240,000 pieces of data
have been collected, processed, checked and compared in order to get
the final number of more than 96,000 of names of victims, belonging to
all nationalities.
"We are not publishing the number but rather the names of BiH citizens
who died in the period from 1991 to 1995. Our intention is to stop
talking about numbers and start talking about people," Tokaca has said
and added that the IDC, while researching the population loss,
registered all BiH citizens who were killed or disappeared due to
direct military actions or were murdered in detention centres.
"This group comprises of soldiers and civilians. What is important to
us is that the total number has its structure, a range of details and
explanations. For almost every case, we explained the time and
geographic dimension of death, distance from place of residence to
place of death, formation in which soldiers were," the president of
IDC Sarajevo explains.
IDC data indicates that, out of the total number of victims, 57,523
were soldiers and 39,684 civilians. The total number also includes
names of 3,372 children who died during the war.
According to this data, 89 per cent of victims were men and ten per
cent were women. Most victims were aged 25 to 35.
In terms of ethnicity, 65.88 per cent were Bosniaks (64,036), Serbs
25.62 per cent (24,906), Croats 8.01 per cent (7,788) and others 0.49
per cent (478).
The research was done in several ways. Most pieces of information were
collected through direct contact with witnesses, families of victims,
through newspaper articles, various registers and also by visiting of
cemeteries. Tokaca says that his researchers have visited more than
400 cemeteries in order to collect names of victims.
It is interesting that the database also contains 512 names of BiH
citizens who died in Slovenia and Croatia during 1991. Tokaca says
that most of them were members of the Yugoslav People's Army. In
addition, the names of 16 persons - who were wounded during the war
and died in 1996 from their wounds - have also been registered.
"According to available data, the highest number of victims - more
than 30 per cent of the total number (28,666) - died in Podrinje, and
the second highest number (14,656) perished in Sarajevo," Tokaca
explained.
In addition to the names of victims, many other indicators about the
war in BiH can be derived from the database. It is therefore obvious
that most civilian victims - 45,110 - died in the period May to August
1992.
"Srebrenica was just a finishing act," says the president of the IDC,
adding that the centre's data suggests that 6,886 people were killed
in the July 1995 massacre.
Shortfalls and instructions
Although they consider the database to be of great importance and the
biggest one referring to the war in BiH, Ball, Verwimp and Tabeau have
pointed to certain shortfalls that can be corrected.
Evaluators have noticed that there were no standardised documents used
in the collection of data which can "possibly be one of the reasons
for some errors in the database".
"Although this database is the biggest one ever compiled on victims of
war in BiH, it should not be used as the only source of information,
but it should be complemented with other sources. Only this way, we
can prevent creation of biased statistics and an historically
incorrect image about the war in BiH, and [prevent the general public
from being misinformed]," the evaluation concludes.
The three experts consider the errors they have discovered to be
minor, and claim that most mistakes are actually not caused by
problems in the database but rather in the information provided, i.e.
they are caused by non-existence of reliable data or its parts.
In any case, the evaluation has come to an important conclusion - that
the research has been done with no ethnic partiality.
Ball, Tabeau and Verwimp identified a lack of data in some cases as
the first problem in the IDC database.
"About 85 per cent of cases are relatively complete (82,257) while 15
per cent are less complete (14,638). The data on civilians is less
complete than data on soldiers," they indicate in the conclusion.
Explaining the terms complete and less complete, Verwimp has said that
data on dates of birth and death are missing in case of some victims.
Probably the biggest problem in the database is how to define the
status of victims. For IDC researchers, the only possible way was to
rely on existing official registers, mostly military.
According to available data, 40 per cent of war victims in BiH were
civilians and 60 per cent were soldiers or members of police forces.
Tokaca explains that he is aware of this shortfall. However, he says
that the existing registers are unreliable.
During and after the war, many families asked that their family
members be buried as soldiers, for various reasons, although they died
as civilians or as soldiers away from front lines. The most common
reason for these requests was access to social support for families of
killed soldiers.
When registering such cases, IDC was governed by the official data
that was available.
The evaluation indicates that such practices lead to over-reporting of
soldiers and under-reporting of civilians.
"It is important to emphasise that "status in war" does not provide
correct insights in relation to victims of combat versus non-combat
situations, neither does it inform about legitimate victims of
violations of the International Humanitarian Law, IHL," the evaluators
say.
"Status in war is a simple measure of whether or not a person was a
member of a military/police formation at the time of death, or
generally was a defender, or a civilian. As such it offers a good
basis for a further more specific investigation into this issue. We
therefore advise that this part be improved," it is said.
Facing the past
For many, the true value of this database is that all who want to can
search for the names of family members and friends who were lost in
the war. This way, they can find the date and place of death, and the
circumstances in which the person died.
Experts consider that the database can be a valuable source of
information for people who study the war in BiH, but it can also be
used as a relevant source in court processes, both before domestic and
international courts. However, Tabeau notes that it cannot be used at
every stage of the legal process.
"The Bosnian Book of the Dead can be used at certain stages of
investigations. It is premature to speak of many other purposes of the
database, such as using it for purposes of evidence where detailed
information records about victims and perpetrators are required, and
without supporting it with additional sources of data," Tabeau told
Justice Report.
She thinks that the database is important for fighting myths and
demystification of various wrong statements about the war.
"The education of the entire society regarding the past is improved,"
she said. "One more advantage is that young researchers can learn from
this project and apply this knowledge in the future."
Nidzara Ahmetasevic is a Justice Report editor. Justice Report is an
online publication of BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina. Balkan Insight is
BIRN's online publication.BIRN
.
- Prev by Date: Britain:Crackdown on Albanians who lied about fleeing Kosovo war
- Next by Date: uranium ammunition wanted
- Previous by thread: Britain:Crackdown on Albanians who lied about fleeing Kosovo war
- Next by thread: uranium ammunition wanted
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
Loading
