News and Events

Forensic Investigation Comes Full Circle for BU Expert

14 March 2007

After 12 years, court proceedings concerning the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre in Bosnia are still being conducted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Netherlands.

The ICTY is the first international body for the prosecution of war crimes since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials held in the aftermath of World War II.

Ian Hanson, BU Lecturer in Forensic Archaeology, attended the trial of seven senior officers of the Bosnian Serb army as an observer in February to see forensic experts give testimony.

These experts include Professor Richard Wright, Chief Archaeologist for the ICTY from 1997-2000.

Professor Wright led teams that located and exhumed graves in Bosnia and Croatia, particularly the killings in Srebrenica, where an estimated 8,000 men and boys lost their lives.

For Ian, who spent four years working with Professor Wright investigating the massacres and other atrocities, the tribunal completes the circle of investigating some 128 graves and locating thousands of the missing to assist in bringing the perpetrators to justice.

“Forensic experts are being cross examined for only the second time on their reports relating to the forensic work undertaken in investigating the mass graves and the missing from the massacres,” said Ian.

“The investigating teams that worked between 1997-2001 included staff and graduates of Bournemouth University.

Their evidence has already been used to convict General Radislav Krstic and others and show the contribution the Forensic Centre at Bournemouth University has made to international justice.”

General Krstic was found guilty of genocide for the 1995 Srebrenica Massacre and sentenced to 46 years in prison.