Book Review: The investigator: Demons of the Balkan War by V. Dzuro

DOI10.1177/1057567720986623
Published date01 June 2022
Date01 June 2022
Subject MatterBook Reviews
degree to which, and whether, such claims hold in developed and emerging democracies alike will
hopefully be catalyzed by Constructing Rights.
That said, two minor points that detract from the books overall excellent quality are worth noting.
One concerns methodology: the lack of clear explanation regarding the scope of the comparative
examination in the three jurisdictions. As noted above, equality rights jurisprudence in the United
States is examined in three detailed chapters. In contrast, Indian and South African equality rights
law is considered in two and one chapters, respectively. It is not entirely clear why the degree of
focus varies so substantially, particularly with respect to South Africa. That the focus, for instance,
in the case of the South African Constitutional Court, during the rather shorter post-apartheid period
may mean thinner jurisprudence. However, it is unclear whether the same could be said about India.
Regardless, a more express justif‌ication would have been useful. The second point concerns one of
organization. One might wonder about the need for putting the slightly shorter introductory and con-
cluding sections/chapters in freestanding parts. It would have made more organizational sense had
the structuring of the parts followed some thematic issues or some other sound criterion. For instance,
the South African case study is both a part and a chapter. Otherwise, the author must be commended
for an excellent piece of scholarship that would be of interest to a broader, multidisciplinary
readership.
ORCID iD
Kinfe Yilma https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2514-0491
Dzuro, V. (2019). The investigator: Demons of the Balkan War. University of Nebraska Press, pp. 400. ISBN:
9781640121959. $29.95
Reviewed by: Ferid Azemi, Boston University; Kosovo Academy for Public Safety, 811 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215, USA. & Kosovo Academy forPublic Safety, Str George Kastrioti, 42000, Kosovo
DOI: 10.1177/1057567720986623
The Investigator takes a unique approach in describing war crimes, investigatory tactics, and the
adjudicatory process utilized by the War Crimes Tribunal of former Yugoslavia. Dzuro posited
that in times of war, people change, and human beings can be ruthless. One of the most shocking
scenes described was the case of a small boy gunned down by a sniperin Sarajevo, where the
author still wonders: To this day I cant understand what went through some snipers head that
prompted him to kill a defenseless boy, but then I suppose it will never be understood, or was
even meant to be(Dzuro, 2019, p. 15).
Bridging together the challenges of investigation, prosecution, and adjudication at the interna-
tional level, The Investigator ref‌lects an outstanding commitment and f‌ight for justice by investiga-
tors working to shed light on the horrors of the Balkan War. More generally, the author elaborates on
the operations of his international investigation team in Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. Their
work ultimately led to the arrest of key Serbian dictators who orchestrated civilian killings and
engaged in a multiplicity of other violations against the Geneva Conventions of war. This was exem-
plif‌ied in Kosovo between 1998 and 1999, during which thousands of Kosovar women were sexually
assaulted by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic and his paramilitary forces. As The Investigator illus-
trates, however, war crimes never expire, and justice can always be served to responsible parties.
In explaining this process, Dzuro detailed how thorough investigations can result in powerful
leaders being apprehended for their role in the perpetration of crimes. When building a case, the
investigation team would spend days in Serbia gathering intelligence, interviewing witnesses
248 International Criminal Justice Review 32(2)

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