Srebrenica - Exhumation

In the period of July 11-18, 1995, the Bosnian Serb Army massacred over 7,000 Muslim men and boys in and around the small Eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, a “safe area” under UN protection. The bodies were first dumped into mass graves; these were later reopened and the commingled remains reburied in secondary mass graves to make their identification more difficult. During the nearly 15 years of investigation, however, more than six thousand victims from 80 mass graves have been identified. The massacre was condemned as genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugo-slavia (ICTY) in a precedent trial, but many still refuse to recognize it as such despite the collected evidence.

The true scale, the military architecture, and the pre-determined and careful organization of the genocide are best revealed in the documents which have been produced as the result of an enormous amount of meticulous in-vestigative work. The map of war crimes created with the help of these “exhibits” provides compelling evidence as to the identity of the perpetrators and serves as a basis for their indictment. A clinically precise yet somewhat de-tached analysis of documents and data, however, reveals that it is as important for the victims, who, stripped of their identities, were shot down, blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs, into unmarked mass graves, and then were given only identification codes and numbers in the various exhumation records, to regain their identities and have a proper burial and final rest.

OSA’s reconstruction builds primarily on records collected during forensic investigations, exhumations of mass graves and the identification of human remains. Military maps, site sketches and photos, aerial images produced by spy satellites, forensic reports, testimonies by survivors and excerpts from films will be presented partly in tra-ditional forms and partly in computer installations in a reconstructed model of a mass grave, created with the tools of land art. In the gallery’s two aisles adjacent to the main installation, additional archival sources describing the wider context of the story will be available: documents, books and audiovisual materials from OSA’s extensive relevant collections will be displayed for consultation in the research room, and documentaries will be screened in the movie hall. Thus, visitors who wish to continue the exhumation by doing their own archival research become part of the exhibition themselves.

Our cooperating partners in this exhibition are one-time investigators and forensic anthropologists and patho-logists, as well as the Sense Agency, the International Commission on Missing Persons and the Missing Persons Institute in Sarajevo.

Warning! The documents presented here are of a dis-turbing nature: the exhibition is recommended only for persons above the age of 16.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExuKrFILme8

Daily film screenings during the exhibition

12:00 p.m.

Crime and Punishment
Directed by Maria Fuglevaag Warsinski, 1998, 75 min
(With English subtitles)

Utilizing clandestine footage, the director takes an unflinching look at the final days of Srebrenica till the UN's final pullout. Powerful interviews detailing the disparate views of combatants on both sides are woven together with vivid descriptions of the impossible journeys faced by the few civilians who made it out alive.

2:00 p.m.

Bosnia – Lost Images
Directed by Gert Corba, 2003, 29 min
(In Serbian with English subtitles)

Under the watch of Dutchbat soldiers, queues of Muslim men and women are separated by one of General Mladic’s men – haunting images broadcast by TV stations around the world in the wake of the Srebrenica massacre. Shot by Serbian journalist Zoran Petrovic-Pirocanac, who later attempted to cover up the evidence by editing out and erasing important scenes, this tape was used as evidence by the ICTY to indict perpetrators.

Operacija Srebrenica
Directed by Zoran Petrovic-Pirocanac, 1995, 29 min
(In Serbian with English subtitles)

The original footage shot by Serbian journalist Zoran Petrovic-Pirocanac as broadcast on Studio B TV, Belgrade on July 14.

3:00 p.m.

Monument to Unresolved Grief
Directed by Kay Mastenbroek and Jaap Verdenius, 2005, 50 min
(With English subtitles)

A documentary about the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, the film shows the effects of the tragic events on the lives of the parties involved ten years after the fall: a former Dutchbat soldier (UNPROFOR), a Bosnian woman who lost her husband and her son, a former Muslim commander and a former Serbian commander.

4:00 p.m.

Srebrenica – Triumph of Evil
Directed by Mina Vidakovic, Mirko Klarin, 2001, 90 min
(With English subtitles)

Produced by SENSE Agency (based in The Hague, ICTY) this documentary about the Srebrenica Trial is the first video-document about a complete trial before an international criminal tribunal after WWII.