Description
Book Synopsis In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb Army commanded by General Ratko Mladic attacked the enclave of Srebrenica, a UN “safe area” since 1993, and massacred about 8,000 Bosniac men. While the responsibility for the massacre itself lays clearly with the Serb political and military leadership, the question of the responsibility of various international organizations and national authorities for the fall of the enclave is still passionately discussed, and has given rise to various rumors and conspiracy theories. Follow-up investigations by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and by several commissions have dissipated most of these rumors and contributed to a better knowledge of the Srebrenica events and the part played by the main local and international actors. This volume represents the first systematic, comparative analysis of those investigations. It brings together analyses from both the external standpoint of academics and the inside perspective of various professionals who participated directly in the inquiries, including police officers, members of parliament, high-ranking civil servants, and other experts. Evaluating how institutions establish facts and ascribe responsibilities, this volume presents a historiographical and epistemological reflection on the very possibility of writing a history of the present time.
Trade Review “This volume is much more than agglomeration of interesting and important case studies… Digesting thousands of pages of different reports and dissecting their content is a timely and insightful venture...It challenges conventional modes of historical, legal and political representation, yet demands to be addressed through responsible research and emphatic debate.” · Southeast European and Black Sea Studies
“The newest addition to Berghahn Books' outstanding 'Studies in Contemporary European History' series, [this book] is an impressive compilation of eight major papers that provide an informed and informative analytical description of how an horrific event has been reported by various governments and agencies. Enhanced with six area maps, a lengthy Bibliography, a Name Index, and a Subject Index, [it] is an important and highly recommended addition to academic library reference collections.” · Reviewer's Bookwatch
“[This book] provides us with a framework to analyse the hundreds of reports that are being written around the world in an effort to come to terms with past atrocities. Whether readers are interested in international relations, law, human rights, history or sociology, this book will have something to bear in the way in which we all approach the issue of understanding rationales behind knowledge. This work fills a gap in the current literature on the main reports and investigations of Srebrenica, since these had not been, until now, the objects of comparative analysis.” · LSE Blog
Table of Contents List of maps
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations and acronyms
List of the Srebrenica reports and websites
Chronology and Maps
Introduction: The Judge, the Historian, and the Legislator
Isabelle Delpla, Xavier Bougarel and Jean-Louis Fournel
Chapter 1. The ICTY Investigations
Jean-René Ruez
Chapter 2. Introduction to the “Report-Form”: Characteristics and Temporalities of a Production of Public Truth
Jean-Louis Fournel
Chapter 3. Reassessing the French Parliamentary Fact-Finding Mission on Srebrenica
Pierre Brana
Chapter 4. A Tale of Two Commissions: Dutch Parliamentary Inquiries during the Srebrenica-Aftermath
Christ Klep
Chapter 5. Reflecting on the Dutch NIOD Report: Academic Logic and the Culture of Consensus
Pieter Lagrou
Chapter 6. Reopening the Wounds? The Parliament of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Question of Bosniak Responsibilities
Xavier Bougarel
Chapter 7. The Long Way to Admission: The Report of the Government of the Republika Srpska
Michèle Picard and Asta Zinbo
Chapter 8. Facts, Responsibility, Intelligibility: Comparing the Investigations and Reports
Isabelle Delpla
Bibliography
Notes on contributors
Index
