Eric Stover

Laurel E. Fletcher

This sobering report by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley adds a new chapter to the chronicle of America's dismal descent into the netherworld of prisoner abuse since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Carefully researched and devoid of rhetoric, it traces the missteps that disfigured an internationally admired nation and tainted its self-proclaimed ideals of humane treatment and justice for all. Through the voices of detainees formerly held at U.S. detention facilities in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the report provides new insights into the lingering consequences of unjust detention and the corrupted processes developed in the desperate months following 9/11.

U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices and Their Impact on Former Detainees

Guantánamo and Its Aftermath

Fred Abrahams

Gilles Peress

A disturbing chronicle of war crimes in Kosovo details the fate of Cuska, a town overrun by Serbian troops who proceeded to rob the inhabitants and murder the males of the town. Simultaneous.

War Crimes in Kosovo

A Village Destroyed, May 14, 1999

Alexa Koenig

Victor Peskin

Hiding in Plain Sight tells the story of the global effort to apprehend the world’s most wanted fugitives. Beginning with the flight of tens of thousands of Nazi war criminals and their collaborators after World War II, then moving on to the question of justice following the recent Balkan wars and the Rwandan genocide, and ending with the establishment of the International Criminal Court and America’s pursuit of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11, the book explores the range of diplomatic and military strategies—both successful and unsuccessful—that states and international courts have adopted to pursue and capture war crimes suspects. It is a story fraught with broken promises, backroom politics, ethical dilemmas, and daring escapades—all in the name of international justice and human rights. Hiding in Plain Sight is a companion book to the public television documentary Dead Reckoning: Postwar Justice from World War II to The War on Terror. For more information about the documentary, visit www.pbs.org/wnet/dead-reckoning/. And for more information about the Human Rights Center, visit hrc.berkeley.edu.

The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg to the War on Terror

Hiding in Plain Sight

 Srebrenica And Vukovar

The Graves

Laurel Emile Fletcher

This book, based on a two-year study of former prisoners of the U.S. government’s detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, reveals in graphic detail the cumulative effect of the Bush administration’s “war on terror.” Scrupulously researched and devoid of rhetoric, the book deepens the story of post-9/11 America and the nation’s descent into the netherworld of prisoner abuse. Researchers interviewed more than sixty former Guantánamo detainees in nine countries, as well as key government officials, military experts, former guards, interrogators, lawyers for detainees, and other camp personnel. We hear directly from former detainees as they describe the events surrounding their capture, their years of incarceration, and the myriad difficulties preventing many from resuming a normal life upon returning home. Prepared jointly by researchers with the Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley, and the International Human Rights Law Clinic, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights, The Guantánamo Effect contributes significantly to the debate surrounding the U.S.’s commitment to international law during war time.

Exposing the Consequences of U.S. Detention and Interrogation Practices

The Guantánamo Effect

Henry Erlich

Thomas J. White

Since its introduction in the late 1980s, DNA analysis has revolutionized the forensic sciences: it has helped to convict the guilty, exonerate the wrongfully convicted, identify victims of mass atrocities, and reunite families whose members have been separated by war and repressive regimes. Yet, many of the scientific, legal, societal, and ethical concepts that underpin forensic DNA analysis remain poorly understood, and their application often controversial. Told by over twenty experts in genetics, law, and social science, Silent Witness relates the history and development of modern DNA forensics and its application in both the courtroom and humanitarian settings. Across three thematic sections, Silent Witness tracks the scientific advances in DNA analysis and how these developments have affected criminal and social justice, whether through the arrests of new suspects, as in the case of the Golden State Killer, or through the ability to identify victims of war, terrorism, and human rights abuses, as in the cases of the disappeared in Argentina and the former Yugoslavia and those who perished during the 9/11 attacks. By providing a critical inquiry into modern forensic DNA science, Silent Witness underscores the need to balance the benefits of using forensic genetics to solve crime with the democratic right to safeguard against privacy invasion and unwarranted government scrutiny, and raises the question of what it means to be an autonomous individual in a world where the most personal elements of one's identity are now publicly accessible.

Forensic DNA Evidence in Criminal Investigations and Humanitarian Disasters

Silent Witness

In recent years, the world community has demonstrated a renewed commitment to the pursuit of international criminal justice. In 1993, the United Nations established two ad hoc international tribunals to try those responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Ten years later, the International Criminal Court began its operations and is developing prosecutions in its first two cases (Congo and Uganda). Meanwhile, national and hybrid war crimes tribunals have been established in Sierra Leone, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, East Timor, Indonesia, Iraq, and Cambodia. Thousands of people have given testimony before these courts. Most have witnessed war crimes, including mass killings, torture, rape, inhumane imprisonment, forced expulsion, and the destruction of homes and villages. For many, testifying in a war crimes trial requires great courage, especially as they are well aware that war criminals still walk the streets of their villages and towns. Yet despite these risks, little attention has been paid to the fate of witnesses of mass atrocity. Nor do we know much about their experiences testifying before an international tribunal or the effect of such testimony on their return to their postwar communities. The first study of victims and witnesses who have testified before an international war crimes tribunal, The Witnesses examines the opinions and attitudes of eighty-seven individuals—Bosnians, Muslims, Serbs, and Croats—who have appeared before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague

The Witnesses

Middle East Watch (Organization)

The Search for the Disappeared in Iraqi Kurdistan

Unquiet Graves

Americas Watch Committee (U.S.)

The Mass Grave at Dom Bosco Cemetery

The Search for Brazil's Disappeared

Christopher Joyce

The Stories Bones Tell

Witnesses from the Grave

Recounts the leading forensic scientist's examination of the skull of Josef Mengele, his discovery of new evidence about Custer's last stand, and other adventures in forensic anthropology

Harvey M. Weinstein

Justice and Community in the Aftermath of Mass Atrocity

My Neighbor, My Enemy

"Hiding in Plain Sight tells the story of the global effort to apprehend the world's most wanted fugitives. Beginning with the flight of an estimated thirty thousand Nazi war criminals after the Second World War, then moving on to the question of justice following the recent Balkan wars and the Rwandan genocide, and ending with the establishment of the International Criminal Court and America's pursuit of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11, the book explores the range of diplomatic and military strategies--both successful and unsuccessful--that states and international courts have adopted to pursue and capture war crimes suspects. It is a story fraught with broken promises, backroom politics, ethical dilemmas, and daring escapades--all in the name of international justice and human rights. In this exhaustively researched and compelling written work of political and judicial history, the authors argue that while the legal and operational regimes needed to apprehend and deliver suspected war criminals to justice are largely in place, the political will on the part of states to make arrests happen in a consistent and apolitical manner remains elusive. And until this situation is rectified, murderers will get away with murder, and torturers will retire with pensions"--Provided by publisher.

Eric Stover

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