Empty Spaces, Buried Crimes: Post-Conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper explores the catastrophic effect on the historic environment of the ethnic cleansing of the 1992–1995 Bosnian War and how it was dealt with by survivors in the aftermath of conflict. It describes the significance restoring the pre-conflict historic environment held for those who had experienced ethnic cleansing and how the act of ‘restoring’ their presence in the landscape monumentally, even they were not able to ‘restore’ their presence physically, became a form of memorialization and remembering. It investigates how the quest for historical truth, justice and reparation for the victims of the horrific events of the war involved not only ‘restoration’ but ‘excavation’ and looks at how the practices of archaeology were embedded in efforts to document, recover and restore Bosnia-Herzegovina’s devastated cultural and social fabric – and at times to impede it. The role of forensic archaeologists in locating, excavating and interpreting mass grave sites during the many war crimes investigations which took place, is explored, as well as their involvement in the ongoing quest to identify those still missing from the conflict.