The Land of Mass Graves: A Study of Former Yugoslavia

By Vanessa Shehu, Staff Writer

On Dec. 3, Bryn Mawr alumnus D. Sarzinski ‘05 presented his work with the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in identifying victims of the Bosnian War. He is a forensic anthropologist and native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose family immigrated to the United States during the Bosnian War. After completing his degree in anthropology at Bryn Mawr, Sarzinski felt the calling to fight for justice in Bosnia and help provide healing to families who lost loved ones in the wars.

As Communism in the Balkan region of Eastern Europe fell during the 1990s, the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia broke apart and nationalist tensions befell the region. Yugoslavia was comprised of multiple ethnic groups: Bosnians, Kosovar Albanians, Macedonians, Croatians, and Serbians comprised the majority. Today, each of these ethnic groups has its own sovereign identity and country. A dark period in Balkan history, the region was ridden with wars, genocides, and ethnic cleansings that took the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers. Just one example is the infamous Kosovo War where over 11,000 Albanian Kosovars were killed by Serbian forces in a mass ethnic cleansing, prompting armed intervention from the Clinton Administration and The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Sarzinski’s primary work is in Bosnia and Herzegovina, although he is expanding to other regions of the Balkans, the Middle East, and South America. In 1992, the Bosnian War broke out as the Serbian government in Bosnia expelled Muslim Bosnians from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over two million people were internally or externally displaced, over 100,000 were killed, and nearly 31,000 missing and unidentified. One of the darkest stains on the Balkan crisis of the 1990s was the Srebrenica Genocide of 1995 in which Serbian forces killed approximately eight-thousand Bosnian men and boys, and placed women and children into concentration camps. Mass graves filled the country’s revines, old hotels and resorts, and cliffs.

“History repeats itself,” Sarzinski remarked, noting the parallels between the Holocaust and the Balkan Wars. The images of concentration camps and dead bodies shook the audience. Noting conflict regions across the world today, he stressed the international community’s duty to enforce human rights protections and prevent mass war crimes in the future.

Fortunately, progress is being made in bringing justice to the victims of the Bosnian War, and Sarzinski has played a remarkable role. In Bosnia, Sarzinski has been working since 2014 to use DNA analysis, government records, and personal belongings of victims to identify victims and give closure to their families. The most painful part for families is often not knowing what became of their loved ones, so Sarzinski’s work is a blessing for many. To date, Sarzinski’s team has worked with 93,000 DNA samples from approximately 33,000 individuals. They have exhumed 3,000 bodies, and through studying the skeletal remains, have identified 70 percent of those individuals.

According to Sarzinski, the investigation process, although rewarding, has been exhausting and full of obstacles. One major challenge was organizing the DNA samples, bodies, and case records of each identified individual. Managing thousands of cases was difficult, especially because case records were not maintained during and after the war and methods of identifying victims were poorly executed. Sarzinski explained that until 2001, DNA testing was not used to identify victims. All the Bosnians had to rely upon were victims’ personal belongings and family members’ descriptions. These practices resulted in an error rate of nearly 20 percent of identified cases. This means that 20 percent of settled cases were mis-identified, an issue that Sarzinski’s team had to combat going forward. The team re-examined over 3,000 cases and has successfully identified 121 of those people. Of the team’s results, Sarzinski remarks, “that number may seem small, but just one person identified is huge for us.”

Going Forward, Sarzinski plans to work with the ICMP to continue identifying war and conflict victims in the Balkans. Soon, his team will begin research in Albania to identify victims of the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. Sarzinski explained the gravity of the undertaking, emphasising the emotional toll on surviving family members, as well as the fact that many have been dead for years, a further hindrance to the investigation process. Furthermore, Sarzinski’s work will expand to Greece, Libya, Italy, Brazil, Colombia, and Syria.

A race against time, Sarzinski’s work requires a great deal of patience. Of international relations in the Balkans, Sarzinski remains skeptical. The effects of the Balkan wars are still apparent in government corruption and infrastructural damage. Nevertheless, he is hopeful that by starting a positive international dialogue, healing is possible in the Balkans.

Photo Credit: Bryn Mawr College