The war time leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic........ accused of war crimes ...........sent the families of his victims into rage by not even arriving in court for the first day of his trial today........ so what should have been the first day of the trial at the Hague was adjourned in respect of the fact that he was refusing to even be in court ........ and demanding that he must have a further 9 months to plan his defense ............
He seemed to snub the authority of the court...... like Milosevich the war's Serbian President had before him........ In fact it seemed like a play straight out of the Milosevich game book.......... Milosevich had strung his trial out for 4 years before his death ultimately denied his victims justice and gamed the system to the end...........
This latest absence was too much to bear for the Mothers of Srebrenica...... , the relatives of about 8,000 men and boys murdered allegedly on Dr Karadzic’s orders in a so called UN safe haven 14 years ago.
Today...... the families arrived in three bus-loads from Bosnia hoping to see the start of a process to bring justice ........ Instead they saw the court fail to take authority over Karadzic....... They were angry and screamed for justice for their murdered sons and husbands and brothers.
I made this picture on the road to Bosonski Brod a town at the time just over run by the Bosnian Serbs...... Muslim and Croat houses burned in the ethnic cleansing that drove people out of their homes and left them nothing to come back to....... Many people lay dead....... I was told that if I photographed any of the dead I would join them.......... I did manage to secretly make pictures but I was terrified throughout.......
I hope Karadzic this organizer of disgusting genocide is convicted soon ......... to allow the suffering families to see some justice done..............
Your good photo and writing reminded me of this quote from one of my favorite philosophers, written in a diary that he kept after the tragic death of his 25 year old son:
"Suffering is the shout of 'No' by one's whole existence to that over which one suffers---the shout of no by nerves and gut and gland and heart to pain, to death, to injustice ... and sometimes when that cry is intense, there emerges a radiance which elsewhere seldom appears: a glow of courage, of selflessness. And in that radiance we best see what humanity was meant to be." - Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son.[reply]Lynda @ October 27, 2009, 12:47 am
The suffering and the shout of 'No' resonating from the the Muslim and Croat families driven from their homes and separated from their men... never to be reunited.......... even now makes me want to join them in the scream of 'No'....... maybe especially because the guns and the complete willingness to kill of the perpetrators had silenced me at the time ..... of course I want the court to attempt to bring some kind of recognition of this terrible injustice...... but it could never be enough........ I hope what remains of these families have found some inner radiance and with it the courage to carry on......
However botched of a job I did in trying to explain it, what I was trying to articulate about Don McCullin is this: that if someone acts as a witness in such a way that he also embraces the world's suffering (so he isn't merely taking photos of it, but allowing it to enter in to his heart, mind, and soul) somehow it makes him both "damaged" and "beautiful" at the same time. Then to be able to hold that trauma and that beauty in tension, somehow, and to be able to translate that into photographs --- well, that is what makes McCullin's photos so very wonderfully "lifted" to use your good word --- alas, it is also what makes McCullin so very broken as well. Yet the radiance in both him and his photos remains: the radiance of humanity not as it is, say, in a Serbian concentration camp, but rather the radiance as it was meant to be, as it is possible, in spite of the Serbian concentration camp. To be able to capture that horror and radiance at the same time isn't about talent and it isn't about f-stops or ISOs (as you say) ... it's about who the photographer is and how he has come to see the world. That is what I was trying to say ...[reply]Lynda @ October 27, 2009, 12:45 pm
Powerful image..and wonderful piece of photo-journalism. Impressive!!![reply]Marcie @ October 27, 2009, 7:47 am
Hey, 'Jez-on-cause' is a thing to behold....
Strong image and great words... Pictures like this seem particularly shocking to me; I always think of war as something that happens somewhere else - yet here it was happening on our own doorstep. It felt like we turned a blind eye to this compared to the Gulf and now Afghanistan - how did we let this happen. I feel for the Mothers - thanks for telling their story.[reply]Steve Marshall @ October 27, 2009, 8:03 am
Gripping story Jez..a strong visual and reportage..a huge chunk of photography in there..what's even stronger is voicing your opinion about the whole news story.
Thats burning rubber or oil ?
Takes a lot to stick a camera into their faces and kick us in the teeth..
Great..my friend...
More..!!
cheers
Sayeed[reply]Sayeed @ October 27, 2009, 10:23 am
Unfortunately the complete inaction of the west (was it two or three years that the whole situation dragged on led to a lot of radicalisation among young European Muslims..have just read some interesting stuff on that period in Ed Hussains rather worrying account of his years as an angry Muslim axtivist "The Islamist"...When they finally got their act together airpower (mostly American) did for the supposedly invincible Bosnian Serbs in a matter of days..[reply]The Joey of Greed xx @ October 27, 2009, 2:04 pm
Lucky that they aint being tried in UK,prob. end up with some one telling us about their troubled childhood.....You press guys are a brave bunch, Stay Safe Bro[reply]Paul S @ October 27, 2009, 2:13 pm
Hate and justice theme along the vein discussed the day. Justice? In the end who defines or what but the law written on the heart of man. Men like him are representive of that evil head you mentioned creeping up again. Bosnia has intrigued me for it's message of what anyone is capable of if he or she finds the justification for it. What good is justice in this life if it can't make him suffer like his victims or see the evil he has done for what it is? Nonetheless, I too hope he does not "get off the hook" as the other. [reply]Luis @ October 27, 2009, 5:25 pm
Jezblog I am from Bosanski Brod, from Brodsko Polje, just when you're facing the bridge and then to the right, and I know the guy on the photograph. Your description of the event is taken out of context which doesnt surprise me anymore since I am accustomed to this type of simplistics and biased reporting. I have also loads of photographs and I could tell you about some things that happened in Bosanski Brod, but usualy people dont care, they like to believe in what they're being sppon fed with in the media. [reply]P.J. @ January 24, 2010, 6:33 am
'I made this picture on the road to Bosonski Brod a town at the time just over run by the Bosnian Serbs...... Muslim and Croat houses burned in the ethnic cleansing that drove people out of their homes and left them nothing to come back to....... Many people lay dead....... I was told that if I photographed any of the dead I would join them.......... I did manage to secretly make pictures but I was terrified throughout.......'
er......... this is my only reporting from Bosonski Brod ........ I really challenge you to dispute this was not my experience.
You may not like to be reminded of what was happening on that day...... but you may not call me a liar because that is what you are attempting to do.
I was there.... if you were there at the time you know the words I have written are 100 percent true. And if anything do not really reflect the disgusting things that were going on.
Don't pretend that the mass graves in Bosnia were dug and filled by the media. I hate those vague statements about incorrect reporting that apologists for slaughter go in for.
More+
The war time leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic........ accused of war crimes ...........sent the families of his victims into rage by not even arriving in court for the first day of his trial today........ so what should have been the first day of the trial at the Hague was adjourned in respect of the fact that he was refusing to even be in court ........ and demanding that he must have a further 9 months to plan his defense ............
He seemed to snub the authority of the court...... like Milosevich the war's Serbian President had before him........ In fact it seemed like a play straight out of the Milosevich game book.......... Milosevich had strung his trial out for 4 years before his death ultimately denied his victims justice and gamed the system to the end...........
This latest absence was too much to bear for the Mothers of Srebrenica...... , the relatives of about 8,000 men and boys murdered allegedly on Dr Karadzic’s orders in a so called UN safe haven 14 years ago.
Today...... the families arrived in three bus-loads from Bosnia hoping to see the start of a process to bring justice ........ Instead they saw the court fail to take authority over Karadzic....... They were angry and screamed for justice for their murdered sons and husbands and brothers.
I made this picture on the road to Bosonski Brod a town at the time just over run by the Bosnian Serbs...... Muslim and Croat houses burned in the ethnic cleansing that drove people out of their homes and left them nothing to come back to....... Many people lay dead....... I was told that if I photographed any of the dead I would join them.......... I did manage to secretly make pictures but I was terrified throughout.......
I hope Karadzic this organizer of disgusting genocide is convicted soon ......... to allow the suffering families to see some justice done..............
Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXX
www.jezblog.com
"Suffering is the shout of 'No' by one's whole existence to that over which one suffers---the shout of no by nerves and gut and gland and heart to pain, to death, to injustice ... and sometimes when that cry is intense, there emerges a radiance which elsewhere seldom appears: a glow of courage, of selflessness. And in that radiance we best see what humanity was meant to be." - Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son.
[reply]Lynda @ October 27, 2009, 12:47 am
Cheers Jez XXXXXXX
[reply]Jezblog London @ October 27, 2009, 6:02 am
[reply]Lynda @ October 27, 2009, 12:45 pm
[reply]Brian l @ October 27, 2009, 7:36 am
[reply]Marcie @ October 27, 2009, 7:47 am
Strong image and great words... Pictures like this seem particularly shocking to me; I always think of war as something that happens somewhere else - yet here it was happening on our own doorstep. It felt like we turned a blind eye to this compared to the Gulf and now Afghanistan - how did we let this happen. I feel for the Mothers - thanks for telling their story.
[reply]Steve Marshall @ October 27, 2009, 8:03 am
Thats burning rubber or oil ?
Takes a lot to stick a camera into their faces and kick us in the teeth..
Great..my friend...
More..!!
cheers
Sayeed
[reply]Sayeed @ October 27, 2009, 10:23 am
[reply]The Joey of Greed xx @ October 27, 2009, 2:04 pm
[reply]Paul S @ October 27, 2009, 2:13 pm
[reply]Luis @ October 27, 2009, 5:25 pm
[reply]P.J. @ January 24, 2010, 6:33 am
er......... this is my only reporting from Bosonski Brod ........ I really challenge you to dispute this was not my experience.
You may not like to be reminded of what was happening on that day...... but you may not call me a liar because that is what you are attempting to do.
I was there.... if you were there at the time you know the words I have written are 100 percent true. And if anything do not really reflect the disgusting things that were going on.
Don't pretend that the mass graves in Bosnia were dug and filled by the media. I hate those vague statements about incorrect reporting that apologists for slaughter go in for.
Cheers Jez
[reply]Jezblog Atlanta :-)) @ January 24, 2010, 9:58 am
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