1
00:00:00,930 --> 00:00:02,385
These are simple objects:

2
00:00:02,385 --> 00:00:06,180
clocks, keys, combs, glasses.

3
00:00:06,180 --> 00:00:08,520
They are the things the victims of genocide in Bosnia

4
00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:11,517
carried with them on their final journey.

5
00:00:11,517 --> 00:00:14,240
We are all familiar with these mundane,

6
00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:15,974
everyday objects.

7
00:00:15,974 --> 00:00:17,559
The fact that some of the victims carried

8
00:00:17,559 --> 00:00:20,973
personal items such as
toothpaste and a toothbrush

9
00:00:20,973 --> 00:00:23,492
is a clear sign they had no idea

10
00:00:23,492 --> 00:00:25,320
what was about to happen to them.

11
00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:27,711
Usually, they were told that they were going to be

12
00:00:27,711 --> 00:00:30,199
exchanged for prisoners of war.

13
00:00:30,199 --> 00:00:32,212
These items have been recovered

14
00:00:32,212 --> 00:00:35,050
from numerous mass graves across my homeland,

15
00:00:35,050 --> 00:00:37,580
and as we speak, forensics are exhuming bodies

16
00:00:37,580 --> 00:00:39,714
from newly discovered mass graves,

17
00:00:39,714 --> 00:00:41,250
20 years after the war.

18
00:00:41,250 --> 00:00:45,333
And it is quite possibly the largest ever discovered.

19
00:00:45,333 --> 00:00:47,611
During the four years of conflict

20
00:00:47,611 --> 00:00:50,457
that devastated the Bosnian nation in the early '90s,

21
00:00:50,457 --> 00:00:53,888
approximately 30,000 citizens, mainly civilians,

22
00:00:53,888 --> 00:00:55,823
went missing, presumed killed,

23
00:00:55,823 --> 00:00:57,803
and another 100,000 were killed

24
00:00:57,803 --> 00:00:59,530
during combat operations.

25
00:00:59,530 --> 00:01:01,159
Most of them were killed

26
00:01:01,159 --> 00:01:02,932
either in the early days of the war

27
00:01:02,932 --> 00:01:04,298
or towards the end of the hostilities,

28
00:01:04,298 --> 00:01:07,477
when U.N. safe zones like Srebrenica

29
00:01:07,477 --> 00:01:10,522
fell into the hands of the Serb army.

30
00:01:10,522 --> 00:01:12,640
The international criminal tribunal

31
00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:14,330
delivered a number of sentences

32
00:01:14,330 --> 00:01:17,109
for crimes against humanity and genocide.

33
00:01:17,109 --> 00:01:20,618
Genocide is a systematic and deliberate

34
00:01:20,618 --> 00:01:24,288
destruction of a racial, political, religious

35
00:01:24,288 --> 00:01:25,960
or ethnic group.

36
00:01:25,960 --> 00:01:28,540
As much as genocide is about killing.

37
00:01:28,540 --> 00:01:31,561
It is also about destroying their property,

38
00:01:31,561 --> 00:01:33,451
their cultural heritage,

39
00:01:33,451 --> 00:01:36,713
and ultimately the very notion that they ever existed.

40
00:01:36,713 --> 00:01:39,210
Genocide is not only about the killing;

41
00:01:39,210 --> 00:01:42,383
it is about the denied identity.

42
00:01:42,383 --> 00:01:43,813
There are always traces —

43
00:01:43,813 --> 00:01:45,532
no such thing as a perfect crime.

44
00:01:45,532 --> 00:01:48,267
There are always remnants of the perished ones

45
00:01:48,267 --> 00:01:50,785
that are more durable than their fragile bodies

46
00:01:50,785 --> 00:01:54,523
and our selective and fading memory of them.

47
00:01:54,523 --> 00:01:57,180
These items are recovered

48
00:01:57,180 --> 00:01:58,352
from numerous mass graves,

49
00:01:58,352 --> 00:02:01,766
and the main goal of this collection of the items

50
00:02:01,766 --> 00:02:03,234
is a unique process

51
00:02:03,234 --> 00:02:06,512
of identifying those who disappeared in the killings,

52
00:02:06,512 --> 00:02:09,482
the first act of genocide on European soil

53
00:02:09,482 --> 00:02:10,905
since the Holocaust.

54
00:02:10,905 --> 00:02:13,419
Not a single body should remain undiscovered

55
00:02:13,419 --> 00:02:15,285
or unidentified.

56
00:02:15,285 --> 00:02:16,650
Once recovered,

57
00:02:16,650 --> 00:02:19,573
these items that the victims carried with them

58
00:02:19,573 --> 00:02:21,052
on their way to execution

59
00:02:21,052 --> 00:02:23,409
are carefully cleaned, analyzed,

60
00:02:23,409 --> 00:02:25,647
catalogued and stored.

61
00:02:25,647 --> 00:02:28,797
Thousands of artifacts are
packed in white plastic bags

62
00:02:28,797 --> 00:02:31,200
just like the ones you see on CSI.

63
00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:33,938
These objects are used as a forensic tool

64
00:02:33,938 --> 00:02:36,393
in visual identification of the victims,

65
00:02:36,393 --> 00:02:39,640
but they are also used as
very valuable forensic evidence

66
00:02:39,640 --> 00:02:42,477
in the ongoing war crimes trials.

67
00:02:42,477 --> 00:02:44,568
Survivors are occasionally called

68
00:02:44,568 --> 00:02:47,119
to try to identify these items physically,

69
00:02:47,119 --> 00:02:50,449
but physical browsing is extremely difficult,

70
00:02:50,449 --> 00:02:53,551
an ineffective and painful process.

71
00:02:53,551 --> 00:02:57,344
Once the forensics and doctors and lawyers

72
00:02:57,344 --> 00:02:58,486
are done with these objects,

73
00:02:58,486 --> 00:03:01,417
they become orphans of the narrative.

74
00:03:01,417 --> 00:03:04,319
Many of them get destroyed, believe it or not,

75
00:03:04,319 --> 00:03:05,956
or they get simply shelved,

76
00:03:05,956 --> 00:03:08,198
out of sight and out of mind.

77
00:03:08,198 --> 00:03:10,714
I decided a few years ago

78
00:03:10,714 --> 00:03:13,380
to photograph every single exhumed item

79
00:03:13,380 --> 00:03:15,281
in order to create a visual archive

80
00:03:15,281 --> 00:03:18,631
that survivors could easily browse.

81
00:03:18,631 --> 00:03:22,688
As a storyteller, I like to give back to the community.

82
00:03:22,688 --> 00:03:25,431
I like to move beyond raising awareness.

83
00:03:25,431 --> 00:03:27,615
And in this case, someone may

84
00:03:27,615 --> 00:03:29,216
recognize these items

85
00:03:29,216 --> 00:03:31,912
or at least their photographs will remain

86
00:03:31,912 --> 00:03:35,714
as a permanent, unbiased and accurate reminder

87
00:03:35,714 --> 00:03:37,626
of what happened.

88
00:03:37,626 --> 00:03:39,764
Photography is about empathy,

89
00:03:39,764 --> 00:03:42,982
and the familiarity of these
items guarantee empathy.

90
00:03:42,982 --> 00:03:45,436
In this case, I am merely a tool,

91
00:03:45,436 --> 00:03:47,090
a forensic, if you like,

92
00:03:47,090 --> 00:03:49,755
and the result is a photography that is as close

93
00:03:49,755 --> 00:03:52,376
as possible of being a document.

94
00:03:52,376 --> 00:03:55,515
Once all the missing persons are identified,

95
00:03:55,515 --> 00:03:57,288
only decaying bodies in their graves

96
00:03:57,288 --> 00:03:59,630
and these everyday items will remain.

97
00:03:59,630 --> 00:04:01,555
In all their simplicity,

98
00:04:01,555 --> 00:04:03,762
these items are the last testament

99
00:04:03,762 --> 00:04:05,319
to the identity of the victims,

100
00:04:05,319 --> 00:04:07,347
the last permanent reminder

101
00:04:07,347 --> 00:04:09,319
that these people ever existed.

102
00:04:09,319 --> 00:04:11,657
Thank you very much.

103
00:04:11,657 --> 00:04:15,470
(Applause)