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Presentation of “War in Numbers”

21 October 2009  The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights from Serbia has published a book entitled “War in Numbers: Demographic Loss in the Wars Conducted on the Territory of former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1999”, written by Ewa Tabeau. 

Sonja Biserko, President of the Serbian Helsinki Committee, pointed out that the book does not give a precise number of victims and that “the full statistical data will probably never be determined,” but she added that the book is “important as one step further in researching the demographic consequences of the war”. 
 
As stated in its subheading, the book is a compilation of “the main reports made by demographic experts presented by the Prosecution at the trials conducted before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia”. 
 
The book is a collection of reports on demographic loss prepared for the Hague Prosecution and presented at various trials, including the Slobodan Milosevic case and other trials for crimes committed in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
 
Tabeau notes in the Introduction that the first report made by a demographic expert was presented before the Tribunal in 2000. It referred to those who disappeared from Srebrnica in 1995. By 2000 only 70 bodies of killed people had been found. The report was therefore limited, but it still represented an important turning point for all future reports, as well as for the verdict pronounced against Radoslav Krstic, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for genocide committed in Srebrenica.
 
The book does not include all reports. Some are still to be presented at the trial of Radovan Karadzic, which begins on October 26, 2009. Nevertheless, Tabaeu considers that the reports presented in the book offer a picture of a part of the recent history of the Balkans. 
 
“The issue of historical significance is of particular importance. It refers to the way in which the demographic consequences of the war, revealed in these reports, will be read and interpreted. In more general terms, this issue goes back to the reliability of statistical data, its limitations and gaps, which can be used for false interpretations and manipulation. In my opinion, this aspect is of particular importance for the analysis of the conflict,” Tabeau says in the Introduction.
 
She further explains that the main topics of the reports made by demographic experts for the Tribunal remind us of many counts in the indictments. However, the reports include the number of killed and wounded people, the number of the missing, exhumed remains and identified people, deported, internally displaced people and the number of those who have left their country. 
 
“At the same time these are the main categories of victims. There are many other war victims categories that can be mentioned, such as using people as human shields, recruiting children as soldiers, committing rape and other types of sexual violence, torture, unlawfully depriving people of liberty, killing detainees and so on. All of this took place during the Yugoslav wars in the nineties,” Tabeau says in the Introduction.  
 
She further mentions that the presented reports refer to the minimal number of victims. 
 
“It is strategically important for the Prosecution to be able to present numbers that can be adequately documented. For instance, it wants to present lists of names and other details pertaining to the killing of victims, which can be associated to a relevant event by presenting statements given by witnesses. This is what usually applies to smaller numbers,” she writes. 
 
The book contains a total of 30 reports, arranged in chronological order, which helps to convey the historical context.
 
Ewa Tabeau is an international expert who formerly worked as a team leader with the demographic unit of the Prosecutor’s Office at The Hague, where she studied the demographic consequences of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. She has worked extensively in the field in Bosnia and Herzegovina.