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.
这些都是普通的物品: 钟,钥匙,梳子,眼镜。 这些是波斯尼亚大屠杀受害者 在他们最后旅程携带的东西。 我们都非常熟悉这些平凡的 日常用品。 一些受害者携带 个人用品像是牙膏和牙刷的事实 是一个清晰的标志,他们完全不知道 将要发生在他们身上的事情。 通常,他们会被告知他们将会 被当作战俘交换。
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.
这些物品是从我的祖国 为数众多的万人塚中寻回的, 就如我们所说,法医专家们正在 从新发现的万人塚中掘出遗体 这已是战后二十年。 而且这极有可能是有史以来发现的最大的一个。 在四年的冲突, 在90年代的中期,毁灭了波斯尼亚国 大约30,000名公民,主要是平民 失踪,被认定死亡 另外的100,000人 在战斗行动中被杀害。 他们中的很多人被杀 要么是在战争早期, 或者在敌对行动的尾声, 当像斯雷布雷尼察这样的联合国安全区 落入塞族军队之手的时候。
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.
国际刑事法庭 判决了若干 针对人道主义和种族屠杀的罪名。 种族大屠杀是一种系统地并且蓄意地 对一个种族,党派,信仰 或者人种的毁灭。 种族大屠杀不单止是关于杀戮, 它还是关于摧毁他们的财产, 他们的文化遗产, 以及最终抹杀他们曾经存在过的观念。 种族大屠杀不只是关于杀戮; 它是关于否认身份。 永远都有踪迹可循—— 世上没有完美的犯罪。 总是有一些遇难者的遗物 远比主人脆弱的身体坚固, 以及我们对他们选择及褪色的记忆。
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.
这些物品, 从众多的万人塚里被挖掘出来, 收集这些物品的主要目的 是一个独特的过程, 来验明那些在大屠杀中消失者的身份, 这是欧洲大陆之上的第一起种族灭绝事件, 自犹太人大屠杀之后。 没有一具遗体应该不被发现 或者被辨明身份。 一旦被挖掘出来, 这些受害者带着 陪他们走上刑场的物品, 被仔细地清洗,分析, 分类以及储存。 成千上万的出土物被包在白色的塑料袋中, 就像你在CSI犯罪现场里看到的那样。 这些物品被用作 视觉识别受害者的法医鉴定工具, 但是它们也被当作非常有价值的法医证据, 在持续进行的战犯审判呈堂。 幸存者偶尔会被传召 去试图亲自辨认这些物品, 但是亲自浏览极其困难, 一个既无效又痛苦的过程。 一旦法医人员,医生,以及律师 不再需要这些物品, 它们变成了这些故事的孤儿。 它们很多都被销毁,信不信由你, 或者束之高阁, 眼不见为净。
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.
我数年前决定了 去拍摄每一件被挖掘出来的物品, 为了创造一个视像档案馆 让幸存者很容易地浏览。 作为一个讲故事的人,我喜欢回馈社区。 我喜欢做超越唤醒意识的事情。 假若这样,有人或许能够 辨认出这些物品 或者至少它们的照片将会保存 成为一个永久的,不偏不倚的,以及准确的纪念 去提醒我们发生了什么事情。 摄影是有关于同理心, 而这些熟悉的物品保证了同理心的产生。 在这种情况下,我仅仅只是一个工具, 一个法医鉴定人员,如果你愿意这样称呼我, 而结果是拍摄出尽可能 写实的文物照片。
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.
一旦所有的失踪人员被识别, 只有在他们的坟墓里腐化的尸体 以及他们的日常物品会留下。 就是因为它们很普通, 这些物品是最后的遗嘱, 证明着受害者的身份, 是最后的永恒的提醒, 这些人们曾经存在过。
Thank you very much.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)