Piecing Lives Together: Anthropologist Writes Book on DNA Analysis in Bosnia

Posted 9-29-08

GREENSBORO, NC — Dr. Sarah Wagner is quick to let you know she’s not a real-life “Bones.” Yes, she studies DNA, but she’s a cultural anthropologist, not a forensics expert.

“I’m more interested in the socio-political ramifications of identifying bodies through DNA,” says Wagner, who holds a PhD from Harvard and is a new addition to the anthropology faculty at UNCG.

“Genetic technology, science, is being brought into the international repertoire for post-conflict and post-disaster response. I’m intrigued by what it means to have a scientific response to chaos.”

Wagner has researched innovative DNA analysis methods developed to identify remains of more than 8,000 Muslim males killed by Bosnian Serbs and Serb forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina, probing the impact on families, ethno-political relations within Bosnia and the international community. She has written a book on the subject called “To Know Where He Lies: DNA Technology and the Search for Srebrenica’s Missing,” 352 pages, University of California Press.

The genocide at Srebrenica is “essentially a story of inaction on the part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission and aggression on the part of the Bosnian Serbs,” Wagner says. “All of this happened in a ‘Safe Area,’ a location the UN had pledged to protect.”

Without the innovative application of DNA technology, she says, Bosnian Serbs could have covered up the war crimes committed at Srebrenica. Bosnian Serbs buried the dead in mass graves, removing identification cards and even clothing. They later dug up the bodies and moved them to cover up the crimes; in the process, the bodies sometimes came apart, leading to an identification nightmare.
"Traditional forensic technology was rendered largely ineffective by these conditions,” Wagner says.

Generally DNA analysis comes at the end of the identification process, confirming other factors such as dental records and ID cards. However, DNA became the driving force behind the Bosnian identification efforts, necessitating a huge data base to match samples extracted from bones with blood samples from family members.

What has Wagner’s research taught her?

• Decisions to put government resources into remains identification are, at their core, political. For instance, Wagner says, what led the international community to allocate funds for the work in Bosnia while investing relatively few resources to identify some 800,000 people slaughtered in Rwanda?
• DNA technology has the potential to deepen communal divisions. “What does it mean to Bosnia Muslims in postwar Bosnia?” Wagner asks. “And what does it mean to Serbs who may have participated in the genocide and don’t want this war opened up?”
• Identification is often used as a means of making amends for prior inaction. For example, Wagner says, the Clinton administration chose not to launch air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs, but Clinton later established the International Commission on Missing Persons, the organization responsible for identifying the Bosnia dead.

On a more human level, however, Wagner learned how essential it is for families to know where their loved ones are buried and to grieve.

“Identifying people on the familial level is incredibly important,” she says. “For the surviving families of the Srebrenica missing, it’s essential that they know where their loved ones’ bodies are, and that they can care for the remains through sanctified, witnessed burial.”