Posted on 12/01/2004 7:47:33 AM PST by Decombobulator
The number of people killed in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina was around 102,000, according to research done by the International Criminal Tribunalfor the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). This is half of earlier estimates.
The most common and most widely used number of killed persons in the Bosnia war has been around 200,000. But research shows that this number is too high. Researchers at the court estimate the correct number to be a bit over 102,000.
This number deviates somewhat from a documentation project going on in Bosnia, and project leader Mirsad Tokaca concludes that the number of killed was between 130,000 and 150,000.
For ICTY
The research project is conducted by the two population experts Ewa Tabeau and Jacub Bijak, who works for the ICTY prosecution.
The results were presented at a conference for population experts, demographists, in Norway one year ago, but they have not been publicly known.
NTB has recently gained access to the material presented at the conference, and for the first time they published scientific calculations of how many civilians were killed in the terrible war in Bosnia- Herzegovina from 1992 to1995.
Civilians and military
102,622 civilians and military personnel were killed, Tabeau and Bijak conclude. 55,261 civilians and 47,360 soldiers were killed, including Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats.
The researchers estimate the number of killed civilian Muslims and Croats tobe around 38,000, while the number of killed civilian Serbians was about 16,700.
Among military personnel, the researchers think close to 28,000 people were killed in the government army, mostly Bosnian Muslims.
On the Serbian side, 14,000 soldiers were killed, while a bit over 6,000 Bosnian Croatian soldiers lost their lives because of actions of war.
Higher number
"The project of the Sarajevo Research and Documentation Center also has a goal to document every single person killed in the war," tells project leader Tokaca.
He is not surprised about the numbers of the Hague researchers, but he thinks his own project will conclude with higher numbers.
"In October we had over 84,000 documented names of killed persons, and by the end of the year I think we will have around 100,000," he says.
The project ends this spring, and Tokaca's rough estimate is that they willend up with a number between 130,000 and 150,000.
"I don't like to make premature estimates. But it will be over 100,000, and surely under 200,000. Our list only includes persons killed as an action of war, not those who died of indirect reasons of war," says Tokaca who cannot give enough praise to the support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Conservative estimates
Researchers Tabeau [and] Bijak have taken a clear reservation that the number could be higher than previously concluded.
Because the researchers work for the prosecution at the ICTY, the numbers have to be so certain that they can be used as documentation in the court.
Numbers for persons dying during the war because of lack of food, low temperatures, lack of medicines and other endeavors in the war inflicted on the civilian population are not included.
The researches are also careful to note that new documentation could influence the final result.
Wrong numbers
The most commonly used number for killed persons in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina has been 200,000, and this number has been repeated ininternational media since 1994.
The number originates from Cherif Bassouni, who was the leader of UN's expert commission investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, finishing their work in 1994.
Tabeau and Bijak conclude that this number is too high, and it was not based on an examination of the cause of death in every single case, rather a summary statistics based on numbers of killed and missing received by the commission in their work and added together.The researchers also reject other numbers presented, ranging from 25,000 to 329,000.
Norway's contribution has been essential to conclude the research.
The demographic unit at the office of the prosecution was established in 1998, and the two researchers said their positions would not be possible to fund without generous contributions from Norway's government.
102,000 people died, not 200,000 or 250,000 as is commonly claimed.
Roughly half were civilians and half were combat soldiers, which is contrary to popular belief that all the dead were civilians who were massacred.
Of the civilians, the three sides (Serbs, Croats, and Muslims) had roughly equal number of casualties (16,700 for Serbs and 38,000 for Muslims and Croats combined). This is contrary to the popular belief that all the dead belonged to one ethnic group (the good guys) and were killed by the other ethnic group (the bad guys).
P.S. Sorry if I bumped someone who doesn't care about this topic. I just went to a post about the Balkans and added all the usernames of people who replied so I assumed you're all interested.
Now-this-was-a-war-where-bombing-civilians-into-the-stone- age-was-justified-according-to-Democrats *ping*
sure the ICTY is a trustworthy organization....................all Freepers would agree to that (sarcasm off)
So you're saying that the numbers are actually higher? Or lower?
And, THEY still have not caught Karadzic.
suffice to say the ICTY has a vested interest in inflating the numbers as much as they can. they are just trying to practice spin control.
the ICTY's credibility is zero
The number is close to a 100K, give or take 5K. The muslims liked to say twenty were killed when only 2 died and 10 were wounded, etc... or they took the dead Serbs and counted them as their own while the Serbs gave their tally. Then you have double the number as that is how it worked.
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