The Verdict

The Hague, June 17: The International Criminal Tribunal will start winding down at the end of the year. At the insistence of the UN Security Council it will cease investigations after December 31, 2004. So the reckoning has already begun. What has it achieved?
Vidoje Blagejovic, the former commander of the Bratunac Brigade in the Bosnian [...]

The Banality of Law

Blagejovic enters in the presence of two burly, but unarmed, UN guards, one of whom sits next to him. Like all of the DRINA Corps senior officers, he was a career officer in the Yugoslav National Army before the war. Today, he’s dressed in a plain dark blue suit, with a blue shirt and a [...]

On Trial

The Hague, Netherlands, June 17: Courtroom number 3 at the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague is a modern, functional room, like the offices of the ICMP in Tuzla. Visitors sit in a gallery, which is arranged into three tiers for the press, “VIPs” and others.
The court operates behind a thick glass panel. The only [...]

Strong Woman

Tuzla, June 12: I interview Beba before I leave, in the Bosfam weaving center. Our former AP colleague Aspen Brinton caught Beba in a foul mood when she recorded an interview last year around July 11 for a promotional film on Bosfam. Beba explains to me that she had been tense at the time, because [...]

Tough Talk Between Partners

Tuzla, June 12. Before I leave from Tuzla for the Netherlands, Pia, Beba Hadzic and I have a frank and useful discussion (as diplomats would say) about Pia’s work here and also about AP’s future relationship with Bosfam.
For me, it also helps to round off Beba the person. She’ll probably be glad to be rid [...]

The DNA Puzzle

Tuzla, June: The ICMP center is situated at the Tuzla city morgue, which beckons us with a sweetish odor that is barely discernible as we start to climb the street. By the time we arrive, it has become a stench that seems to cling to our clothes and assault our senses.
The ICMP center is a [...]

In Search of the Dead

Tuzla, June: Earlier in the week, before we went to Srebrenica, Pia and I visited the Tuzla field center of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), which is trying to identify the remains of several thousand victims of the Srebrenica massacre. The work is both a straightforward scientific task and a probe into the [...]

Salt Peter

Tuzla, June 11: We return to Tuzla by bus and meet up in the afternoon with our friend Peter Lippman, from Seattle, who is at the end of a long visit to the country he knows so well.

Peter Lippman has
reported from Bosnia
for AP since 1999.
Peter left the Advocacy Project last year after writing several of [...]

Joined at the Hip

Srebrenica, June 10: Our confidence in Bosfam’s chances of establishing a foothold in Srebrenica has been shaken by Hajra’s moodiness. By the end of the day, confidence is restored. Three remarkable women have convinced us that it might well be possible.
The first is Milica Janic, a Bosnian Serb who runs Bosfam’s office in Srebrenica. Milica [...]

Housing Lottery

Srebrenica, June 10: A small group of experienced Bosfam weavers have now returned to Srebrenica. Bosfam’s hope is that these veterans can continue to produce kilims, train other weavers, and persuade more exiled widows that they can in fact earn a living back home in Srebrenica.
First they will need somewhere to live. Over the past [...]