Investigating Srebrenica

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.

Isabelle Delpla is Professor of Philosophy at University Jean Moulin-Lyon III. Her research focuses on international ethics and justice and the relationships between philosophy and anthropology. She has conducted fieldwork in Bosnia with victim associations, Hague witnesses, and convicted war criminals.

Xavier Bougarel is Researcher at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. He is currently researching the wars of the 1990s and their aftermath in the former Yugoslavia and the transformations of Islam in the post-Communist Balkans.

Jean-Louis Fournel is Professor at the University of Paris VIII. His research focuses on the history of warfare, political thought, and the rhetoric of the Italian Renaissance. Between 1997 and 2001, he directed several European cooperation programs with universities in Bosnia- Herzegovina. In 1994, while the city was under siege, he co-organized the initiative for a sister relationship between his university and that of Sarajevo.

Isabelle Delpla is Professor of Philosophy at University Jean Moulin-Lyon III. Her research focuses on international ethics and justice and the relationships between philosophy and anthropology. She has conducted fieldwork in Bosnia with victim associations, Hague witnesses, and convicted war criminals.

“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