Ethnic Otherness as a Mitigating Circumstance: The Case of Dražen Erdemović in Front of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

• In Event: Challenges in Researching Mass Violence in the Former Yugoslavia

Abstract

This paper dives into the documents related to the case to analyze the stories he tells about himself from before, during and after the perpetration. Leaning into the legal turn in genocide historiography, I argue that Erdemović weaves a complex story that allows him to inhabit the space between three separate roles—that of a hero, a victim, and the perpetrator. In these stories, his Croat identity becomes a shield of mitigation in that he uses it to claim an escalating narrowing of his choices throughout the war that culminated in the final closure of options during the killings.

Author

• Fedja Buric, Bellarmine U