In recent years, the world community has
demonstrated a renewed commitment to the pursuit of
international criminal justice. In 1993, the United
Nations established two ad hoc international tribunals
to try those responsible for genocide and crimes against
humanity in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Ten years
later, the International Criminal Court began its
operations and is developing prosecutions in its first
two cases (Congo and Uganda). Meanwhile, national and
hybrid war crimes tribunals have been established in
Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, East Timor, Indonesia, Iraq, and
Cambodia. Thousands of people have given testimony
before these courts. Most have witnessed war crimes,
including mass killings, torture, rape, inhumane
imprisonment, forced expulsion, and the destruction of
homes and villages. For many, testifying in a war crimes
trial requires great courage, especially as they are
well aware that war criminals still walk the streets of
their villages and towns. Yet despite these risks,
little attention has been paid to the fate of witnesses
of mass atrocity. Nor do we know much about their
experiences testifying before an international tribunal
or the effect of such testimony on their return to their
postwar communities. The first study of victims and
witnesses who have testified before an international war
crimes tribunal, The Witnesses examines the opinions and
attitudes of eighty-seven individuals-Bosnians, Muslims,
Serbs, and Croats-who have appeared before the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia.
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