In our notes and references, we have tried to give the most public source available that corroborates what we learned from interviews or “gray literature,” the unpublished reports and memos that circulate within and between organizations. Many of these documents were graciously provided to us by local field officers working for the OHR, UNHCR, OSCE, local governments, and NGOs. By providing the most public sources, we also seek to protect interviewees in vulnerable social situations and officials dealing with sensitive human rights situations.
Some of what we address involves questions of criminal and disreputable conduct. We have worked diligently to provide as much factual detail as is necessary for documentary purposes while also rendering accusations made by victims, witnesses, and officials without assessing legal guilt or innocence. In some cases, these accusations or accounts are available in the indictments, convictions, confessions, expert documents, and eye witness testimony presented before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, materials which we cite. In some cases, we have presented publicly accessible documentation in lieu of identifying individuals we interviewed in order to preserve the confidentiality of vulnerable persons.
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