Confronting the Past (Slide Show)

The NYTs ran stories today about the 15th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica, and, (in its coverage of the World Cup), South Africa's ability to reconcile after apartheid. Both stories address the role of accounting for the past, as a society creates its future in the aftermath of mass atrocity.

The NYTs claimed that South Africa's support of the Dutch team represented reconciliation with apartheid's masters. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission held hearings from 1996-1998 to investigate the violence of apartheid.

In Srebrencia, Bosnia, an estimated 7000-8000 Muslim men and boys were massacred in mid July 1995. As Serbian forces over-ran the UN- sponsored 'safe area,' Dutch troops (part of a UN Peace keeping mission) withdrew. Tens of thousands of civilians were left helpless before an armed force bent on 'cleansing' the area.

Every year, the massacre is commemorated in eastern Bosnia, although in different fashions by Muslims and Serbs. A UN-sponsored war crimes court at the Hague is prosecuting those most responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

Below please find photos from my field work in these areas. All of the photos were taken by others, noted in the presentation.


Photos #1-11 are images of hearings I attended of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in RSA in 1997. I shot the slides of the TRC posters and promotional material, the photographs in the hearings were provided by the TRC.

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Sarajevo---photo by Ana Petrovic, circa 2006.
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13) Grave at Pilice collective farm near Srebrenica, Bosnia, 1996---photo by Gilles Peress, Magnum Photos.



Photos 14- 19 by Ana Petrovic, Bosnian Muslim commemoration and burial of Srebrenica victims, July 2006.

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Photos 20-33 by Peter Frey, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, The Hague, The Netherlands 2006.

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