"Justice is the only closure"
The Investigator:
Demons of the Balkan War
Riveting true story of finding justice for the people of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Book by Vladimir Dzuro.
About the Book
The Investigator provides a realistic picture of the war crime investigations
that led to the successful prosecution of a number of war criminals.
The Investigator: Demons of the Balkan War is the riveting true story of finding justice for the people of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Vladimír Dzuro’s work as a Czech criminal investigator in the 1990s brings him to the former Yugoslavia to pursue the war criminals who brought unspeakable horror to innocent civilians. Drawing from the daily notes he kept, Dzuro recounts how he and his colleagues risked everything to bring the guilty to justice.
$29.95 / 400 pages, Hardcover / Buy on AMAZON
Author Vladimir Dzuro, Foreword by Carla Del Ponte
Potomac Books, University of Nebraska Press, November 2019, 978-1-64012-195-9
- Introduction
- Chapter One: From Interpol to the Hague
- Chapter Two: Operation Little Flower
- Chapter Three: The Tribulations of Slavko Dokmanović
- Chapter Four: How a Police Officer, a Dentist and a Warehouseman Became the Presidents of the Republic of Serbian Krajina
- Chapter Five: The Case of Dubrovnik
- Chapter Six: Everything is Controlled from Belgrade
- Chapter Seven: Visit by Carla Del Ponte to Eastern Slavonia
- Chapter Eight: The International Tribunal in the Eyes of a Czech Prosecutor
- Chapter Nine: The Reckoning
- Chapter Ten: Final Word
- Chapter Eleven: Relevant Literature and Documents
- Appendix 1 Index of Names
- Appendix 2 Index of Institutions
- Acknowledgements
Author Bio
Vladimír Dzuro, Commissioner (ret.), worked as a criminal detective between 1983 and 1995, initially investigating violent crime with the Criminal Investigation Department in Prague and later at the National Central Bureau of Interpol in Prague. In 1994, Vladimír actively participated in the work of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in the former Yugoslavia. In April 1995, he began a ten-year stint as an investigator with the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
Vladimír currently works as Chief of Headquarters Office at the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services in New York.
Praise
Madeleine Albright
“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.”
Madeleine Albright, former United States Secretary of State, former Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations
Clint Williamson
“In a captivating personal account, Vladimír Dzuro brings to life the early days of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, and 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 how, despite expectations to the contrary, this undertaking became a success.”
Clint Williamson, US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues (2006-2009)
Julian Borger
“This is a detective story with a difference. The shallow graves that Vladimír Dzuro examines contain scores, even hundreds, of victims. He investigated the worst war crimes Europe has seen since the aftermath of the second world war. Dzuro takes us inside the investigation of atrocities committed as Yugoslavia collapsed. He explains what it is 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 first-hand account of an extraordinary pursuit of justice in the face of absolute horror.”
Julian Borger, World Affairs Editor at the Guardian. Borger was part of the Guardian team that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism
Kevin Curtis
“Being part of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was one of the most harrowing, yet rewarding experiences I have had in my entire working life. I had the opportunity to work alongside true professionals from all over the world. The Tribunal was an institution that should have never been needed in the 20th Century, but the internal conflict that erupted in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, identified 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 that had suffered the most.”
Kevin Curtis, Chief of Investigations, UNICEF (former Investigator and Team Leader at the Office of the Prosecutor, ICTY)
Philip Zimbardo
“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 Balkan War. It is brilliant storytelling of this mass tragedy from a key investigator.”
Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University
William Jefferson Clinton
“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.”
William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America
Jacques Paul Klein
“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 to heal the psychological wounds. The efforts of Vladimír Dzuro and his colleagues did much to facilitate this healing process.”
HH Judge Joanna Korner
“In the 25 years since the establishment of the ICTY, there have been many books and articles examining individual trials and the legal effects of the judgments. 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 which 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.”
Ralph R. Johnson
“For the war to really end, when the military conflict was over, the citizens of the former Yugoslavia needed closure that could only be provided by impartial justice. Our friend Vladimír Dzuro and his colleagues from the ICTY provided the only option. They put their own lives at risk so that others could have justice and this book eloquently tells their story.”
Ralph R. Johnson, Ambassador (ret.), Principal High Representative, Sarajevo (1999-2001)
Jacqueline M Johnson, LTC U.S. Army (ret.), Executive Officer (Office of the High Representative, Sarajevo 2000-2001)
Dag Hammarskjold
“The UN was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.”
Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations
Gallery
Media
- Vladimir Dzuro´s podcast serie – Operation Little Flower ( Apple podcast)
- The Guardian: Serbian secret police chiefs face verdict over atrocities in Croatia and Bosnia
- Slideslive – 6-Minute Challenge VOL.9, NY
- Radio Prague: The ex-Prague detective who made a groundbreaking war crimes arrest in former Yugoslavia
- UN News: Hunting a war criminal from the former Yugoslavia
- IWPR.net: Dokmanovic Trial: The Dramatic Finale
- blog.witness.com: Video as Evidence Case Study: Filming Long After A Crime in Croatia
- AP Archive: Kosovo: Mass grave site excavations (video)
Movie
The Investigator (2022), Documentary, 73 min., Directed by Viktor Portel
Former investigator of The Hague Tribunal returns to the Balkans, to places where the war crimes were committed nearly 30 years ago. Can justice be brought from the outside?