In August, 1992, an American journalist revealed the existence of civilian internment camps run by Serbian nationalists in Bosnia, on the outskirts of the city of Prijedor. Television images and a photo taken in Trnopolje were seen around the globe. For the nationalist forces of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the region had become a sort of laboratory for experiments in “ethnic cleansing”. There was no shortage of violence and abuse, and the International Criminal Tribunal has already sentenced several of those responsible, while other trials are still taking place. Since the end of the war, in December, 1995, more than 10,000 people who were forced to flee persecution have come back to live in Prijedor. The authors of this book performed a major investigation, not only to reconstitute what had taken place, but above all to try to understand how this return was possible. How could the victims live and work alongside the very people who caused their suffering or profited from it? What words do they use today to describe yesterday’s war and the crimes that were committed in its name? What memory of it do they want to preserve? Has justice been done? What is the international community’s role? And finally, is true reconciliation a viable option?

What is drawn here is the portrait of a collective living memory, incarnated, for the refugees, by extraordinary personalities who want to build a lucid but lasting peace.
Over and above Bosnia alone, light is shed on the stakes at the end of any war, each one a challenge that will define the future.