Forensic Evidence in the ICTY as Loci for Outreach in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

This thesis analyzes forensic evidence collected during the active conflict and aftermath of the Bosnian War (1992-1995), including the DNA identification of missing persons, exhumation of mass graves, geospatial documentation of killing sites, collection of physical or audio-visual materials, and other efforts to record war crimes in perpetuity. Over 70% of forcibly disappeared victims, mainly Bosnian-Muslims (Bosniaks) and Bosnian-Croats, have been identified and successfully incorporated as medico-legal evidence to prosecute counts of genocide and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). However, today, ethno-sectarian tensions between Serb and Bosniak-dominated entities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) propagate contrasting narratives of the war, suggesting a problematic gap between the ICTY and the aggrieved society it was supposed to serve. Widespread disappointments around the ICTY's inability to usher in reconciliation, albeit through its narrowly tailored legal mandate, has indicated a failure of the ICTY to communicate its realistic abilities with its ex-Yugoslavian constituents. Aiming to understand where the Tribunal's outreach policies could have improved, this study conducts a thematic tracing of forensic evidence acting as mediating loci of convergence between the ICTY and wider BiH citizens across three temporal stages: (1) pre-trial investigations, (2) during the trials, and (3) in the aftermaths of the trials. This thesis draws on ICTY court records, fieldwork conducted in Bosnia, and semi-structured interviews with survivors of the Srebrenica Genocide, Bosnian artists, and other subject matter experts in the fields of forensic pathology, transitional justice, war crimes tribunals, conflict stabilization, and international human rights law. Ultimately, this thesis finds that the ICTY's purely judicial processes were, in fact, deeply embedded within a sticky network of local actors in BiH, creating extralegal spillover effects to affected communities during all three stages. By blending in forensic architecture analyses and media theory to find moments of Tribunal interactions with affected Bosnian communities, this thesis contributes valuable insights that highlight the ICTY's potential outreach opportunities at missed or unexpected intervention points. The ICTY, in this manner, thus potentially serves as a case study to inform the public relations policies of current and future International Criminal Trials (ICTs) in post-conflict areas.