Poor health is a “good indicator” of the risk of genocide facing an ethnic group, new research shows. Skeletal analysis has been used for the first time, to assess the overarching health of genocide victims before their murder in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A health-based approach to identify groups at high risk of genocide is proposed by forensic anthropologists Ann Ross and Ashley Maxwell based on their results.

Nidzara Ahmetasevic in Sarajevo spoke to Ann Ross

Tweet

'Epidemiology of genocide: an example of the former Yugoslavia'
400 body remains found in mass graves around Srebrenica examined by Ross and Maxwell found that those Bosnian Muslim victims had an unusually high frequency of malnutrition, poor health and inadequate prenatal care. For both scientists, these conditions are “good indicators” of a genocide risk because they illustrate the marginalised status of the victims’ ethnic group. They also examined epidemiological data from the World Health Organization on the general health of refugees from Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. These results were consistent with the forensic assessment of the Srebrenica victims.

You claim that victims were allowed to suffer for a very long time before genocide occurred. How did you reach this conclusion?
We refer to the lack of health care when living. A couple of individuals had such severe ear infections that they destroyed the bone and would have caused loss of hearing. You normally would not see this type of evidence recorded in a skeleton in a developed nation with adequate health care. Simple antibiotics would have cured this, which strongly suggests poor health care.

Did you examine the bones of other groups from Bosnia, apart from Bosnian Muslims?
We did examine individuals from Bihac, northern Bosnia. However, the primary goal was to assist in Bosnian Muslim identifications after the war. But we went to Croatia where we saw a striking, palpable, and visible difference the minute we crossed the border from generally poverty-stricken Bosnia to a much more affluent Croatia.

A lesson for policy makers

Do you suggest a "health-based approach" to identify high-risk genocide groups can be used as a means of genocide prevention?
We propose there is tangible evidence that the groups at risk of genocide are in fact marginalised. The health effects we saw on the bones were long-term and may be related to poor health care. For example, in the womb of a mother who had poor health care while pregnant.
We hope this will spur policy makers and NGOs to act before the start of genocidal incident and not wait until the aftermath to intervene. We all have to be aware that the ravages of genocide do not end with the massacre of victims, but live on with the survivors.

What brought you to Bosnia and Herzegovina from the US?
I first came to Bosnia under the auspices of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) to assist with the identifications of the victims and to help train local scientists. It was evident that the standards we were using for identification were not adequate for the Bosnian population as they were developed for Americans. So we developed common standards and a database to continue the work and assist in future identifications. 

Stories to tell

What sparked your interest in this type of research?
I have always had a strong commitment to human rights issues. In part, it is because I was born and raised in the Republic of Panama and lived through two military dictatorships and I have family that suffered under the Pinochet Regime in Chile.

How important are the stories you can "read" from the bones of the genocide victims?
In my line of work, very important. The victims each have a story to tell and we all have the responsibility of telling it for them. We are their only advocate.

* Epidemiology of Genocide: An Example from the Former Yugoslavia