War Crime Investigator

“Thank you for sending me a copy of The Investigator. I am eager to read it, and am grateful for the work you and your colleagues did to pursue justice for the victims of war crimes in the Balkans.”

“Setting up the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was truly one of the most important cases I ever took to the Security Council. Despite the fact that people doubted it would work, it has been remarkable.
The war was a tragedy and those involved needed to be punished. To this day, I say that the ICTY was essential —by assigning individual guilt we could expunge collective guilt.”

“This is a detective story with a difference. The shallow graves that Vladimír Dzuro examines contain scores, even hundreds, of victims. He investigates the worst war crimes Europe has seen since the Second World War. Dzuro takes us inside the investigation of atrocities committed as Yugoslavia collapsed. He explains what it feels like and smells like when you stand in a mass grave as it is being exhumed. He tracks down suspects and witnesses, flies across the world to authenticate evidence, and finally faces the war criminals at a war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The Investigator is a raw and unique firsthand account of an extraordinary pursuit of justice in the face of absolute horror.”

“Personal accounts of investigations of war crimes, such as this one by Vladimír Dzuro, breathe life into the abstract project of accountability and show the challenges of operating a criminal justice system in an international environment.”

“In a captivating personal account, Vladimír Dzuro brings to life the early days of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and describes in detail how its investigators and prosecutors worked against incredible odds to bring to justice some of the worst war criminals of the twentieth century. It is the story of the birth of the modern era of international justice and of how, despite expectations to the contrary, this undertaking became a success.”

“The Investigator is a fascinating story of a fight for truth and justice by bringing to trial in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia the brutal murderers and assassins from the Balkans War. It is brilliant storytelling of this mass tragedy from a key investigator.”

“This was the most difficult war of all—a war between neighbors and friends, a war between people who had lived together in a functioning community for decades. We know that the physical wounds of war often heal faster than the psychological wounds. Bringing to justice those who perpetrated such heinous crimes will go far toward healing the psychological wounds. The efforts of Vladimír Dzuro and his colleagues did much to facilitate this healing process.”

“To my knowledge Vladimír Dzuro’s book is the first to explain the complexities, the frustrations, and finally the satisfaction of conducting investigations into the serious crimes that were committed during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. It is above all the story of the people who suffered from those crimes and the investigators and lawyers who worked tirelessly to try and ensure that the alleged perpetrators faced trial for their part in those crimes.”

“The Investigator is rife with demons. Vladimir Dzuro details his life as an international criminal investigator, and like many of his colleagues at the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals, he witnessed the unfathomable daily. Skills, teamwork, wit, and luck (bad and good) allowed him to squeeze justice out of profound depravity. Dzuro’s book chronicles the real slog of international investigators and prosecutors. Hollywood fiction would shrink from his searing view of war crimes from under the wet tarpaulin of a mass grave. Notwithstanding, Dzuro ponders his experience by observing that ‘humanity owes it to the scarred and broken people who open up their hearts to you.’ It is also true that the best international investigators, like Dzuro, open up their hearts, in turn.”

“The Investigator reminds us that the United Nations is a body that can, at will, search out and hold accountable those individuals who orchestrate and enforce extreme violence on noncombatants. . . . Vladimír Dzuro’s years of work with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia are a testament to the tenacity of persons dedicated to the investigations of war crimes. He and his colleagues deserve not only our admiration but most certainly our attention, as atrocities and genocide permeate the beginnings of the twenty-first century. Dzuro’s narrative is fascinatingly clear and engaging; it also serves as a warning.”

“The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was an institution that should have never been needed in the twentieth century, but the internal conflict that erupted in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s precipitated large-scale war crimes committed by both civilian and military factions of the former Yugoslavian republics. The tribunal successfully identified and prosecuted war criminals from different sides of the conflict, which in turn brought at least some closure to those innocent victims who had suffered the most.”

“Vladimir, in authoring this very powerful book The Investigator, has presented a message that, in today’s world, is essential reading. As history constantly demonstrates, mankind has learned nothing over the years and evil continues to prevail in splitting communities, who once lived together harmoniously as neighbors.”