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.
Ovo su jednostavni predmeti: satovi, ključevi, češljevi, naočari. To su stvari žrtava genocida u Bosni koje su poneli na svoje poslednje putovanje. Svima nama su poznati ovi obični, svakodnevni predmeti. Činjenica da su neke žrtve nosile lične predmete kao što su pasta i četkica za zube je jasan znak da nisu imali pojma šta će se dogoditi sa njima. Uobičajeno, bilo im je rečeno da će biti razmenjeni za ratne zarobljenike.
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.
Ovi predmeti su dobijeni natrag iz brojnih masovnih grobnica širom moje domovine, i dok pričamo, forenzičari ekshumiraju tela iz novootkrivenih masovnih grobnica, 20 godina nakon rata. I to verovatno najvećih ikada otkrivenih. Tokom četiri godine konflikta koji je opustošio bosanski narod ranih '90-ih, oko 30.000 građana, uglavnom civila, je nestalo, smatrano ubijenim, i još 100.000 je ubijeno za vreme borbenih operacija. Većina njih je ubijena ili ranih dana rata ili pred kraj sukoba, kada su bezbedne zone UN-a poput Srebrenice pale u ruke srpske vojske.
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.
Međunarodni krivični tribunal je izrekao niz presuda za zločine protiv čovečanstva i genocid. Genocid je sistematsko i namerno uništavanje rasne, političke, verske ili etničke grupe. Koliko je genocid ubijanje, toliko je i uništavanje njihove imovine, njihovog kulturnog nasleđa, i na kraju samog pojma da su ikada postojali. Genocid se ne odnosi samo na ubijanje; radi se o uskraćenom identitetu. Uvek ima tragova - ne postoji savršen zločin. Uvek postoje ostaci stradalih koji su trajniji od njihovih krhkih tela i naših selektivnih i izbledelih sećanja na njih.
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.
Ovi predmeti su pronađeni u brojnim masovnim grobnicama, a glavni cilj ove kolekcije predmeta je jedinstveni proces identifikovanja onih koji su nestali u ubistvima, prvom činu genocida na evropskom tlu od Holokausta. Nijedno telo ne treba da ostane neotkriveno ili neidentifikovano. Kada su jednom pronađeni, ovi predmeti koje su žrtve nosile sa sobom na putu ka pogubljenju se pažljivo čiste, analiziraju, popisuju i skladište. Hiljade eksponata je spakovano u belim plastičnim kesama baš kao što su one koje gledate u "Mestu zločina". Ovi predmeti se koriste kao forenzički instrument za vizuelnu identifikaciju žrtava, ali se takođe koriste i kao veoma dragoceni forenzički dokazi na tekućim suđenjima za ratne zločine. Preživeli povremeno bivaju pozvani da pokušaju da identifikuju ove predmete fizički, ali fizičko pregledanje je izuzetno težak, neefikasan i bolan proces. Kada forenzičari i doktori i advokati završe sa ovim objektima, oni postaju siročad narativa. Mnogi od njih budu uništeni, verovali ili ne, ili budu prosto odloženi, daleko od očiju i daleko od srca.
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.
Rešio sam pre nekoliko godina da fotografišem svaki ekshumirani predmet kako bih stvorio vizuelni arhiv koji preživeli mogu lako da pregledaju. Kao pripovedač, volim da nečim uzvratim zajednici. Volim da idem dalje od podizanja svesnosti. A u ovom slučaju, neko možda prepozna ove predmete ili će makar njihove fotografije ostati kao trajni, nepristrasni i istiniti podsetnik na ono što se dogodilo. Kod fotografije se radi o empatiji, i poznatost ovih predmeta garantuje empatiju. U ovom slučaju, ja sam samo instrument, forenzičar, ako hoćete, a rezultat je fotografija koja je što je moguće bliža dokumentu.
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.
Kada sve nestale osobe budu identifikovane, samo raspadajuća tela u njihovim grobovima i ovi svakodnevni predmeti će ostati. U celokupnoj svojoj jednostavnosti, ovi predmeti su poslednje svedočanstvo identifikovanju žrtava, poslednji trajni podsetnik da su ti ljudi ikada postojali.
Thank you very much.
Hvala vam mnogo.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)