These are simple objects: clocks, keys, combs, glasses. They are the things the victims of genocide in Bosnia carried with them on their final journey. We are all familiar with these mundane, everyday objects. The fact that some of the victims carried personal items such as toothpaste and a toothbrush is a clear sign they had no idea what was about to happen to them. Usually, they were told that they were going to be exchanged for prisoners of war.
Estes son obxectos simples: reloxos, chaves, peites, lentes Son as cousas que as vítimas do xenocidio en Bosnia levaron na súa viaxe final. Todos estamos afeitos a estes obxectos mundanos e cotiáns O feito de que algunhas vítimas levaran obxectos persoais como a pasta ou o cepillo de dentes é un sinal de que non tiñan idea do que ía ocurrirlles. Adoitaban dicirlles que serían intercambiados por prisioneiros de guerra
These items have been recovered from numerous mass graves across my homeland, and as we speak, forensics are exhuming bodies from newly discovered mass graves, 20 years after the war. And it is quite possibly the largest ever discovered. During the four years of conflict that devastated the Bosnian nation in the early '90s, approximately 30,000 citizens, mainly civilians, went missing, presumed killed, and another 100,000 were killed during combat operations. Most of them were killed either in the early days of the war or towards the end of the hostilities, when U.N. safe zones like Srebrenica fell into the hands of the Serb army.
Estes obxectos recuperáronse de numerosas foxas comúns da miña terra E, mentras falamos, os forenses exhuman corpos das novas foxas comúns que se atopan 20 anos despois da guerra. E son quizais os maiores descubertos Durante os catro anos do conflito que desolou Bosnia a principios dos 90, uns 30000 cidadáns, civís a maioría, desapareceron, seguramente asasinados e outros 100000 foron aniquilados durante as operacións de combate. Os máis foron asasinados, ben nos primeiros días da guerra, ou ben cara a fin do conflito, cando as áreas seguras da ONU como Srebrenica caeron en mans do exército serbio.
The international criminal tribunal delivered a number of sentences for crimes against humanity and genocide. Genocide is a systematic and deliberate destruction of a racial, political, religious or ethnic group. As much as genocide is about killing. It is also about destroying their property, their cultural heritage, and ultimately the very notion that they ever existed. Genocide is not only about the killing; it is about the denied identity. There are always traces — no such thing as a perfect crime. There are always remnants of the perished ones that are more durable than their fragile bodies and our selective and fading memory of them.
O tribunal penal internacional ditou sentencias por crimes contra a humanidade e xenocidio Xenocidio é a destrución sistemática e deliberada dun grupo étnico, político, relixioso e racial O xenocicio é tanto a matanza como a destrución da propiedade, da herdanza cultural, e básicamente de calquera sinal da súa existencia O xenocidio non é só a matanza; é a negación da identidade Sempre hai pistas, non hai crime perfecto Sempre quedan remanentes dos aniquilados que duran máis que os seus corpos fráxiles ou que a nosa selectiva e débil memoria.
These items are recovered from numerous mass graves, and the main goal of this collection of the items is a unique process of identifying those who disappeared in the killings, the first act of genocide on European soil since the Holocaust. Not a single body should remain undiscovered or unidentified. Once recovered, these items that the victims carried with them on their way to execution are carefully cleaned, analyzed, catalogued and stored. Thousands of artifacts are packed in white plastic bags just like the ones you see on CSI. These objects are used as a forensic tool in visual identification of the victims, but they are also used as very valuable forensic evidence in the ongoing war crimes trials. Survivors are occasionally called to try to identify these items physically, but physical browsing is extremely difficult, an ineffective and painful process. Once the forensics and doctors and lawyers are done with these objects, they become orphans of the narrative. Many of them get destroyed, believe it or not, or they get simply shelved, out of sight and out of mind.
Estes obxectos recupéranse de moitas foxas comúns e o obxectivo da recolecta de obxectos é un proceso único de identificación dos que desapareceron no primeiro acto de xenocidio en Europa dende o Holocausto Ningún corpo debería quedar sen descubrir ou sen identidicar Unha vez se recuperan estes obxectos que as vítimas levaban camiño á súa execución límpanse, analízanse catalóganse e almacénanse Miles deles métense en bolsas de plástico como as que vedes en CSI Úsanse como ferramentas forenses na identificación visual de vítimas pero tamén como probas valiosoas nos xuizos de guerra Ás veces chámase a supervivintes para identificalos físicamente pero o recoñecemento visual é un proceso difícil, inefectivo e doloroso Unha vez que forenses, médicos e avogados acaban con eles pasan a ser orfos da narrativa Moitos destrúense, aínda que non o crean ou simplemente aplílanse fóra da vista e da mente
I decided a few years ago to photograph every single exhumed item in order to create a visual archive that survivors could easily browse. As a storyteller, I like to give back to the community. I like to move beyond raising awareness. And in this case, someone may recognize these items or at least their photographs will remain as a permanent, unbiased and accurate reminder of what happened. Photography is about empathy, and the familiarity of these items guarantee empathy. In this case, I am merely a tool, a forensic, if you like, and the result is a photography that is as close as possible of being a document.
Hai uns anos decidín fotografiar cada obxecto exhumado para crear un sinxelo arquivo visual que os supervivintes manexasen Como narrador, gústame dar aos demais, gústame promover a sensibilización e neste caso, alguñen pode recoñecer os obxectos ou polo menos que as fotos quedan como recordo permanente, fiel e imparcial do que ocorreu. A fotografía é empatía e a familiaridade destes obxectos garantízaa. Neste caso, eu son só unha ferramenta, un forense, se queredes, e o resultado é o máis parecido posíbel a un documento
Once all the missing persons are identified, only decaying bodies in their graves and these everyday items will remain. In all their simplicity, these items are the last testament to the identity of the victims, the last permanent reminder that these people ever existed.
Cando se identifique aos desaparecidos so quedarán os corpos descompoñéndose e estes obxectos cotiáns En toda a súa simplicidade Estes obxectos son o testamento para a identidade das vítimas o último recordatorio de que esas persoas existiron
Thank you very much.
Moitas grazas
(Applause)
(Aplausos)