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The Butcher's Trail: How the Search for Balkan War Criminals Became the World's Most Successful Manhunt
The gripping, untold story of The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and how the perpetrators of Balkan war crimes were captured by the most successful manhunt in history
Written with a thrilling narrative pull, The Butcher’s Trail chronicles the pursuit and capture of the Balkan war criminals indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Borger recounts how Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić—both now on trial in The Hague—were finally tracked down, and describes the intrigue behind the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president who became the first head of state to stand before an international tribunal for crimes perpetrated in a time of war. Based on interviews with former special forces soldiers, intelligence officials, and investigators from a dozen countries—most speaking about their involvement for the first time—this book reconstructs a fourteen-year manhunt carried out almost entirely in secret. Indicting the worst war criminals that Europe had known since the Nazi era, the ICTY ultimately accounted for all 161 suspects on its wanted list, a feat never before achieved in political and military history.
Written with a thrilling narrative pull, The Butcher’s Trail chronicles the pursuit and capture of the Balkan war criminals indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Borger recounts how Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić—both now on trial in The Hague—were finally tracked down, and describes the intrigue behind the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav president who became the first head of state to stand before an international tribunal for crimes perpetrated in a time of war. Based on interviews with former special forces soldiers, intelligence officials, and investigators from a dozen countries—most speaking about their involvement for the first time—this book reconstructs a fourteen-year manhunt carried out almost entirely in secret. Indicting the worst war criminals that Europe had known since the Nazi era, the ICTY ultimately accounted for all 161 suspects on its wanted list, a feat never before achieved in political and military history.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published January 19, 2016
76 people are currently reading
1550 people want to read
About the author
Julian Borger
5 books19 followersJulian Borger is a British journalist and non-fiction writer. He is the world affairs editor at The Guardian. He was a correspondent in the US, eastern Europe, the Middle East and the Balkans and covered the Bosnian War for the BBC. Borger is a contributor to Center of International Cooperation.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
February 24, 2016
Twenty years after the massacre of 263 men, boys, and one woman at Vukovar, the centuries-old Croatian town alongside the Danube, Goran Hadžić was captured and extradited to the Hague, last on a list of 161 indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It was a fifteen year manhunt filled with big personalities, creative surveillance techniques, much double dealing and leaking of sensitive documents, allowing many of the indicted to initially slip the nooses prepared for them. Intelligence services of several nations both cooperated and obstructed each other and the small intelligence arm of the ICTY at different times, depending on the priorities of their individual services, on the egos of their team leaders, and to ensure no casualties on their own teams would cause consternation in their home countries. Borger brings the manhunt to life in stunning detail yet with a reporter’s distance, allowing us to see the curve of the investigation and what the Hague trials ultimately meant for the survivors of atrocities in the former Yugoslavia.
The overwhelming majority of those indicted for war crimes were men, and yet two women did more than anyone else to ensure those on the list were tracked down: Louise Arbour and Carla Del Ponte, both chief prosecutors for ICTY at different times. Borger shows how the contrasting prosecutorial styles and strategies were both instrumental in imposing maximum pressure on reluctant governments to search for and apprehend those responsible for the crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
In the process of highlighting the men most responsible for the genocide in Yugoslavia and recounting the search for their henchmen, Borger gives us an overview of the history of the region and snapshots of the worst atrocities. Many of those accused of crimes against humanity stayed in positions of power in the states newly formed after the fall of Yugoslavia, going about their business, literally, without fear. In perhaps the most banal of captures, Mitar Vasiljević, a former waiter-turned-paramilitary terrorist of his town’s Bosniak majority, was captured when French intelligence rented an apartment Vasiljevic owned, seizing him when he came to collect the monthly rent.
The ICTY tracking team experienced only one truly voluntary surrender: Vojislav Šešelj was founder of the far right nationalist Serbian Radical Party and was accused of recruiting brutal paramilitary groups to carry out ethnic cleansing. He arrived at ICTY’s Belgrade outpost one day with a suitcase, demanding to know who was going to pay for his ticket to the Hague. Šešelj had cancer and was released in 2014 for treatment in Serbia, his case not yet settled.
Borger includes lessons learned by special forces in the laboratory of the Balkans, shares the story of the hairpin turn and the cognitive dissonance theory of the gorilla suit, and liberally seeds his reportage with names we recognize including a younger David Petraeus taking small roles in intelligence or capture and learning lessons he will go on to use as commander of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Polish, French, British, American, and even Germans special forces had teams doing investigations, some more effectively than others.
Borger’s story is so filled with criminals and covert attempts at capture that the reality of the vast genocide in the region begins to take a backseat to the ludicrous wealth of storytelling possibilities, whether it be for film or fiction. The story is tailor-made for a long-running film series allowing one to see into the twists and turns human reason takes when nationalism, religion, guns, and power converge.
Borger makes the case that vast military resources of participating countries searching for the war criminals were not as effective as a small band of dedicated and resourceful investigators hired by the ICTY to pursue leads, one example of need for focus rather than overwhelming strength. Participating countries’ intelligence services were often victims of false leads and misinformation, and their mandate to eliminate risk ensured every high-profile capture was accompanied by too much of everything, an embarrassment of riches.
As a test case for criminal prosecution of war criminals, the ICTY could be said to have succeeded, finally, though several of those convicted of terrible crimes have already been released back to their home countries, having served two-thirds of their sentences. In some cases, the sentences of some high-ranking defendants were reversed:
The overwhelming majority of those indicted for war crimes were men, and yet two women did more than anyone else to ensure those on the list were tracked down: Louise Arbour and Carla Del Ponte, both chief prosecutors for ICTY at different times. Borger shows how the contrasting prosecutorial styles and strategies were both instrumental in imposing maximum pressure on reluctant governments to search for and apprehend those responsible for the crimes in the former Yugoslavia.
In the process of highlighting the men most responsible for the genocide in Yugoslavia and recounting the search for their henchmen, Borger gives us an overview of the history of the region and snapshots of the worst atrocities. Many of those accused of crimes against humanity stayed in positions of power in the states newly formed after the fall of Yugoslavia, going about their business, literally, without fear. In perhaps the most banal of captures, Mitar Vasiljević, a former waiter-turned-paramilitary terrorist of his town’s Bosniak majority, was captured when French intelligence rented an apartment Vasiljevic owned, seizing him when he came to collect the monthly rent.
The ICTY tracking team experienced only one truly voluntary surrender: Vojislav Šešelj was founder of the far right nationalist Serbian Radical Party and was accused of recruiting brutal paramilitary groups to carry out ethnic cleansing. He arrived at ICTY’s Belgrade outpost one day with a suitcase, demanding to know who was going to pay for his ticket to the Hague. Šešelj had cancer and was released in 2014 for treatment in Serbia, his case not yet settled.
Borger includes lessons learned by special forces in the laboratory of the Balkans, shares the story of the hairpin turn and the cognitive dissonance theory of the gorilla suit, and liberally seeds his reportage with names we recognize including a younger David Petraeus taking small roles in intelligence or capture and learning lessons he will go on to use as commander of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Polish, French, British, American, and even Germans special forces had teams doing investigations, some more effectively than others.
Borger’s story is so filled with criminals and covert attempts at capture that the reality of the vast genocide in the region begins to take a backseat to the ludicrous wealth of storytelling possibilities, whether it be for film or fiction. The story is tailor-made for a long-running film series allowing one to see into the twists and turns human reason takes when nationalism, religion, guns, and power converge.
Borger makes the case that vast military resources of participating countries searching for the war criminals were not as effective as a small band of dedicated and resourceful investigators hired by the ICTY to pursue leads, one example of need for focus rather than overwhelming strength. Participating countries’ intelligence services were often victims of false leads and misinformation, and their mandate to eliminate risk ensured every high-profile capture was accompanied by too much of everything, an embarrassment of riches.
As a test case for criminal prosecution of war criminals, the ICTY could be said to have succeeded, finally, though several of those convicted of terrible crimes have already been released back to their home countries, having served two-thirds of their sentences. In some cases, the sentences of some high-ranking defendants were reversed:
"Under the leadership of an American judge, Theodor Meron, an eighty-three-year-old Holocaust survivor and former Israeli diplomat, the new judgments significantly raised the threshold of proof needed to convict political leaders. It was no longer enough to demonstrate that senior officers had control over the units who committed mass murder."Apparently American and Israeli governments were concerned that their generals would be indicted one day for backing insurgents in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Governments are being forced to recognize and acknowledge where their actions come dangerously close to crimes against humanity.
February 28, 2018
A well-researched, well-organized work.
Borger begins with the story of how Yugoslavia disintegrated, and describes how international peacekeepers identified war criminals but often avoided them even if their whereabouts were known due to the messy politics of capturing them, and how reluctant other nations were to go after war criminals even when they had thousands of troops in the country. Italian troops would literally turn their backs whenever Karadžić’s motorcade came by. When he went into hiding, Karadžic also favored a bar with a picture of him on the wall, and even had a neighbor who was responsible for Interpol’s assistance to the hunt.
Borger also describes how the Serb army and police protected war criminals, how reluctant the US was to take the lead in the aftermath of what happened in Somalia, and how operations were hampered when the US sent in conspicuous planeloads of special operators eager for action. He then covers how the first capture of a war criminal (by Polish special forces in Croatia) led to a chain reaction where the hunt became more aggressive (the chase saw the first German combat casualties since World War Two), to the point that, remarkably, every single one of the 161 people indicted were eventually run down.
Borger mostly focuses on the capture operations and avoids the decisions made about the indictments, trials, and sentences. This part is rich and suspenseful, and he describes the rendition process in which suspects were captured in Serbia, flown to Bosnia-Herzegovina, and then flown to the Hague, and how officials in the Hague tried to distinguish the practice from the renditions conducted by the US after 9/11 when the latter were exposed. Borger also describes how many of the war criminals, once released, were welcomed as heroes when they arrived in their hometowns.
The writing is elegant and compelling, although the narrative can get a little slow at times. Still, a valuable, vivid and engaging work.
Borger begins with the story of how Yugoslavia disintegrated, and describes how international peacekeepers identified war criminals but often avoided them even if their whereabouts were known due to the messy politics of capturing them, and how reluctant other nations were to go after war criminals even when they had thousands of troops in the country. Italian troops would literally turn their backs whenever Karadžić’s motorcade came by. When he went into hiding, Karadžic also favored a bar with a picture of him on the wall, and even had a neighbor who was responsible for Interpol’s assistance to the hunt.
Borger also describes how the Serb army and police protected war criminals, how reluctant the US was to take the lead in the aftermath of what happened in Somalia, and how operations were hampered when the US sent in conspicuous planeloads of special operators eager for action. He then covers how the first capture of a war criminal (by Polish special forces in Croatia) led to a chain reaction where the hunt became more aggressive (the chase saw the first German combat casualties since World War Two), to the point that, remarkably, every single one of the 161 people indicted were eventually run down.
Borger mostly focuses on the capture operations and avoids the decisions made about the indictments, trials, and sentences. This part is rich and suspenseful, and he describes the rendition process in which suspects were captured in Serbia, flown to Bosnia-Herzegovina, and then flown to the Hague, and how officials in the Hague tried to distinguish the practice from the renditions conducted by the US after 9/11 when the latter were exposed. Borger also describes how many of the war criminals, once released, were welcomed as heroes when they arrived in their hometowns.
The writing is elegant and compelling, although the narrative can get a little slow at times. Still, a valuable, vivid and engaging work.
November 8, 2018
Postwar Bosnia is probably one of the better examples of a country receiving accountability for crimes against humanity committed during wartime. This is less a commentary on its great success, but rather points to the general impunity that tends to reign following armed conflict. During the 1990s, Nazi-like levels of violence were once again perpetrated in the heart of Europe. Scenes of concentration camps, mass rapes and public executions managed to shame the world into taking some level of action to finally end the genocide, mostly as a result of American pressure. Following the war the carrot of EU integration and economic investment was used as an incentive for Serbia to turn over some of its worst war criminals, forcing liberal Serbian politicians into a battle against their own ultranationalist security agencies.
Borger's journalistic account of the postwar manhunt to capture Balkan war criminals, mostly Serbian though also including a small handful of Croats and Muslims, is engagingly written. The manhunting teams established by NATO countries after the war ended up being a precursor for the War on Terror's much larger special forces raids and detentions. The Americans and Germans come across as the most competent in the hunt, while the French military showed itself to be feckless and uncommitted in its efforts. The book has interesting details about the strange last days of Milosevic, Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. None of them were repentant for their crimes though they did seem to regret being caught and went to great lengths to avoid that. Karadzic even reinvented himself in plain sight as some kind of man-bun wearing Bohemian spiritual healer living under an assumed name in Belgrade. These are weird stories that would even be funny had they not involved the commission of heinous war crimes.
The last chapter talks about the legacy of international law in the Balkans. The courts have failed (perhaps because the task is itself impossible) to level the scales of justice following the monumental crimes committed during the Bosnian genocide. However they have provided a modicum of accountability that remains a high point in international law, succeeding in bringing the top criminals of the Serbian political and military apparatus into a court of law. Without the efforts of a small group of dedicated military and legal officials, perhaps no one at all would've been held responsible. The Balkans has yet to heal from the trauma of war and today fierce efforts at historical revisionism are under way. The seven million documents from the war now held by international courts are, as such, a vital and enduring monument to the truth of what happened. They are a bulwark against the nationalist lies that inevitably come back to life in any place where the old order is not completely deracinated.
Borger's journalistic account of the postwar manhunt to capture Balkan war criminals, mostly Serbian though also including a small handful of Croats and Muslims, is engagingly written. The manhunting teams established by NATO countries after the war ended up being a precursor for the War on Terror's much larger special forces raids and detentions. The Americans and Germans come across as the most competent in the hunt, while the French military showed itself to be feckless and uncommitted in its efforts. The book has interesting details about the strange last days of Milosevic, Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. None of them were repentant for their crimes though they did seem to regret being caught and went to great lengths to avoid that. Karadzic even reinvented himself in plain sight as some kind of man-bun wearing Bohemian spiritual healer living under an assumed name in Belgrade. These are weird stories that would even be funny had they not involved the commission of heinous war crimes.
The last chapter talks about the legacy of international law in the Balkans. The courts have failed (perhaps because the task is itself impossible) to level the scales of justice following the monumental crimes committed during the Bosnian genocide. However they have provided a modicum of accountability that remains a high point in international law, succeeding in bringing the top criminals of the Serbian political and military apparatus into a court of law. Without the efforts of a small group of dedicated military and legal officials, perhaps no one at all would've been held responsible. The Balkans has yet to heal from the trauma of war and today fierce efforts at historical revisionism are under way. The seven million documents from the war now held by international courts are, as such, a vital and enduring monument to the truth of what happened. They are a bulwark against the nationalist lies that inevitably come back to life in any place where the old order is not completely deracinated.
January 22, 2020
Quite a telltale of how it happened, the delay, the procrastination of arresting criminals. Politics come first before human.
December 26, 2021
This is likely not the first book you should pick up if you’re interested in learning more about the origins and basic history of the Balkan/post-Yugoslav nation states (as I’ve seen several reviewers mention). As this book primarily relates to the successes of the International Court Tribunal of Yugoslavia, you learn more about the perseverance and moral obligations by certain small groups and individuals to bring international war criminals to justice on a global stage.
Of course, you hear about about the three primary “Balkan Butchers” and how it was under their leadership and ultranationalism that drove their military agencies as well as everyday citizens into a fit of vengeful anger along with ethnic pride, where both the Serbs and the Croats (but most exceptionally, their dictator-style leaders) - and to a lesser degree, Bosniaks and Kosovars - went about on a horrendous ethnic cleansing spree. Again, Serbian President Milosevic and Croatian President Tudjman were very much the orchestrators of this atrocity, each with their own map and separate hopes for a homogenous Serbian and Croat state.
The book focuses more on the strategies employed by the ICTY’s mostly “motley crew” type officers, small groups belonging to various Western powers such as the UK, France, the US and Germany, who proved that less was more when it came to these kinds of covert snatch operations. It’s a really interesting book that is certainly worth the read, but maybe read a few books about the people themselves to grasp a better understanding of their logic and the difficulty the ICTY faced at bringing popular nationalist heroes to a foreign tribunal.
Unfortunately, the ICC and ICJ, formed around 2002-2003 in the image of The Hague, have thus far failed to recapture the few years of success enjoyed by that court. Namely because the five permanent UN Security Council members (the US, the UK, China, France and Russia, for those unaware) don’t back the efforts. Why? My best guess is already mentioned to an extent - all five of these countries have things to hide, and don’t want to someday be facing the very court they voted into existence. Which basically means so many of these war criminals have been acquitted, and the ones who remain incarcerated live a very cushy life in this so-called “prison.” It’s a sad ending, because justice was right within reach, only to become more elusive than ever to the war’s victims and those they lost. They will never regain back what they lost. It sucks that the ending took such a pessimistic turn, but... that’s history and power politics for you.
My poly-sci professor for Immigration Policy and Global Economic Perspectives recommended this book for me, along with a few others before it. He was born in raised to a Serbian diplomat, the only son/heir to his fortune, and came to study at NYU when his father passed away and left him everything. I think there’s a Wikipedia page on his dad: Nikola Mirilovic, but I’ll have to double check the first name (can’t remember if father and son share the same first name).
Of course, you hear about about the three primary “Balkan Butchers” and how it was under their leadership and ultranationalism that drove their military agencies as well as everyday citizens into a fit of vengeful anger along with ethnic pride, where both the Serbs and the Croats (but most exceptionally, their dictator-style leaders) - and to a lesser degree, Bosniaks and Kosovars - went about on a horrendous ethnic cleansing spree. Again, Serbian President Milosevic and Croatian President Tudjman were very much the orchestrators of this atrocity, each with their own map and separate hopes for a homogenous Serbian and Croat state.
The book focuses more on the strategies employed by the ICTY’s mostly “motley crew” type officers, small groups belonging to various Western powers such as the UK, France, the US and Germany, who proved that less was more when it came to these kinds of covert snatch operations. It’s a really interesting book that is certainly worth the read, but maybe read a few books about the people themselves to grasp a better understanding of their logic and the difficulty the ICTY faced at bringing popular nationalist heroes to a foreign tribunal.
Unfortunately, the ICC and ICJ, formed around 2002-2003 in the image of The Hague, have thus far failed to recapture the few years of success enjoyed by that court. Namely because the five permanent UN Security Council members (the US, the UK, China, France and Russia, for those unaware) don’t back the efforts. Why? My best guess is already mentioned to an extent - all five of these countries have things to hide, and don’t want to someday be facing the very court they voted into existence. Which basically means so many of these war criminals have been acquitted, and the ones who remain incarcerated live a very cushy life in this so-called “prison.” It’s a sad ending, because justice was right within reach, only to become more elusive than ever to the war’s victims and those they lost. They will never regain back what they lost. It sucks that the ending took such a pessimistic turn, but... that’s history and power politics for you.
My poly-sci professor for Immigration Policy and Global Economic Perspectives recommended this book for me, along with a few others before it. He was born in raised to a Serbian diplomat, the only son/heir to his fortune, and came to study at NYU when his father passed away and left him everything. I think there’s a Wikipedia page on his dad: Nikola Mirilovic, but I’ll have to double check the first name (can’t remember if father and son share the same first name).
October 3, 2016
I'm not sure that I can adequately review this book. I have too little knowledge of the Balkan wars. I learned some more from this book, but I think I would have gotten more out of it if I had a better understanding of the history. I am appreciative of the efforts of the tribunal to bring justice to the thousands of victims. However, the final chapter was a real downer as the guilty are being released and the world powers, especially the US and Russia, are not inclined to work for the furthering of the prosecution of war criminals.
March 30, 2021
I've been researching the 1990s Balkan conflicts for a while now; I wouldn't recommend this as an accessible entry point for someone coming rather new to the topic. The book does in fact assume there there is a lot of background knowledge on the part of the reader (I honestly would have found it tedious if it had started with the background of the breakup of Yugoslavia). That said the first part of the book did a great job in showing how, even in one in the more 'successful' examples of international criminal justice, the friction between peace keeping and peace enforcement can make catching criminals difficult without the explicit support of local governments and populations. At the same time, international carrot-stick pressures, such as sanctions or trade packages, can prove an equally fickle tool, with eventual regime change and/or cooperation often being the only reliable method of bringing the criminals to justice.
The book ends with accountings of how three of the most notorious Serb war criminals were apprehended, and their conditions in prison in the Netherlands. While interesting for the details of their capture, I'd have liked to see some more exposition regarding some of the less known accused persons, more information surrounding their trials and in many cases early releases to 'heroes'' welcomes back home.
The book ends with accountings of how three of the most notorious Serb war criminals were apprehended, and their conditions in prison in the Netherlands. While interesting for the details of their capture, I'd have liked to see some more exposition regarding some of the less known accused persons, more information surrounding their trials and in many cases early releases to 'heroes'' welcomes back home.
May 17, 2022
For those of us who have an interest in the Balkans, this is a great book! The author really digs into the details of the hunt for war criminals from the Balkan Wars of the 1990's. I think for those who work in this area, as a diplomat, this book is meat and potatoes reading - necessary! It can help newcomers understand some of the psychology behind the power plays at work in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia currently and for those who have served and left, the book certainly has lots of familiar names and situations that will have you nodding your head going "yup." Great for those in diplomatic tradecraft!
The book is written in such a way that each chapter starts with these interesting vignettes and than the author dumps detail towards the end, so the reader is not bogged down.
I think this book is a great analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of an international court for war crimes and yes while ICTY didn't solve all that ails Bosnia and that region, it did at least some of the main criminals made to answer for what they did. Having lived in Bosnia there is definitely PTSD by the average person to see the everyday perpetrator (often former neighbors and friends) living and working with no recourse, but as the book points out, hopefully this will deter other demi-Gods from going down this path.
Highly recommend for those working and living the Balkans region and scholars of war crimes and psychology of punishment.
The book is written in such a way that each chapter starts with these interesting vignettes and than the author dumps detail towards the end, so the reader is not bogged down.
I think this book is a great analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of an international court for war crimes and yes while ICTY didn't solve all that ails Bosnia and that region, it did at least some of the main criminals made to answer for what they did. Having lived in Bosnia there is definitely PTSD by the average person to see the everyday perpetrator (often former neighbors and friends) living and working with no recourse, but as the book points out, hopefully this will deter other demi-Gods from going down this path.
Highly recommend for those working and living the Balkans region and scholars of war crimes and psychology of punishment.
December 1, 2019
A very engaging telling of how ICTY managed to bring 161 accused war criminals to face justice. I was very young when these events were happening so I did not grasp the importance of events happening just across the border from where I live. As an adult, I traveled in the area, talked to the people and developed a very strong interest in what happened so close to home.
This book fills in quite a few gaps and it does it with an alert style and great writing. It shows the failures, the oddities, the injustice and at the same time the courage, determination and resourcefulness of those trying to bring justice to those who can no longer speak. After reading Clea Hoff's very sobering telling of the anthropological work involved in bringing justice, this one reads more like the script to an action movie. A movie that gets very strange at times.
The author did a great job at putting it all together and I can only commend it. I only wish there was a bit more information about who these people are and how they ended up on the list.
This book fills in quite a few gaps and it does it with an alert style and great writing. It shows the failures, the oddities, the injustice and at the same time the courage, determination and resourcefulness of those trying to bring justice to those who can no longer speak. After reading Clea Hoff's very sobering telling of the anthropological work involved in bringing justice, this one reads more like the script to an action movie. A movie that gets very strange at times.
The author did a great job at putting it all together and I can only commend it. I only wish there was a bit more information about who these people are and how they ended up on the list.
January 2, 2023
Interesting, but not well structured book.
Also, The Hague is NOT the capital of The Netherlands.
Also, The Hague is NOT the capital of The Netherlands.
April 18, 2025
Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic, Slobodan Milosevic? Remember these guys? Remember the atrocities committed under their leadership during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Seems so long ago here in 2016.
So, why read this book?
1. It is a comprehensive story of the pursuit of various war criminals over the course of more than 15 years. A mixed bag story -- eventually, all 161 persons indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague were apprehended (except for those who die in the meantime). But the process was not pretty. Big Power governments, especially the French, led lackluster efforts to bring the bad guys to justice. Even the US and the Brits had to wait until elections in 96-97 before they got serious. Fear of friendly casualties was extreme, leading to paralysis. Showboating by military commanders led to gridlock and blown security.
So, a useful history and lessons for the future for the next set of war criminals that will inevitably cross our consciences.
2. It is an excellent reminder of what happens when nationalism/tribalism are combined with guns and histrionic rhetoric. Massacres (Srebenica), concentration camps, communities raped and murdered, etc. Not a pretty scene. Now, do we see any parallels to today's divisive presidential campaign? It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to see similar atrocities committed against minorities in the US should certain nativists come to power. Evil isn't the sole province of ISIS.
The book is not strictly chronological tending to focus a given chapter on, say, the French, or the British efforts to apprehend Croats and Serbs. So, there is a bit of repetition as the reader is reminded of the current political scene to aid the narrative. The last chapters are on Mladic and Karadzic, who were caught way too many years after their crimes.
So, why read this book?
1. It is a comprehensive story of the pursuit of various war criminals over the course of more than 15 years. A mixed bag story -- eventually, all 161 persons indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague were apprehended (except for those who die in the meantime). But the process was not pretty. Big Power governments, especially the French, led lackluster efforts to bring the bad guys to justice. Even the US and the Brits had to wait until elections in 96-97 before they got serious. Fear of friendly casualties was extreme, leading to paralysis. Showboating by military commanders led to gridlock and blown security.
So, a useful history and lessons for the future for the next set of war criminals that will inevitably cross our consciences.
2. It is an excellent reminder of what happens when nationalism/tribalism are combined with guns and histrionic rhetoric. Massacres (Srebenica), concentration camps, communities raped and murdered, etc. Not a pretty scene. Now, do we see any parallels to today's divisive presidential campaign? It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to see similar atrocities committed against minorities in the US should certain nativists come to power. Evil isn't the sole province of ISIS.
The book is not strictly chronological tending to focus a given chapter on, say, the French, or the British efforts to apprehend Croats and Serbs. So, there is a bit of repetition as the reader is reminded of the current political scene to aid the narrative. The last chapters are on Mladic and Karadzic, who were caught way too many years after their crimes.
June 15, 2016
We have said it seems forever, "never again" and yet genocide as a method of politics keeps occurring. The Balkans has always been troubles by unending violence and a strange history of unforgotten victimhood, even held strongly by perpetrators. This text shows the bungling efforts of the international community to address justice for the victims of the carnage that rounded up civilians and slaughtered them, village by village...all in the name of nationalism. It is a sad story about the efforts and the lack of effort the few successes and many failures, there were few heroes and many incompetent players, and in the end a few small victories, but little justice. This effort has lead to more balkanized areas than ever before...and the tragic part is that there is actually a dictionary verb that recognizes the reality of this geographic area as "verb
past tense: Balkanized; past participle: Balkanized
divide (a region or body) into smaller mutually hostile states or groups."
This is an interesting text, an important read as it outlines the collusion of both Russia and France both Serbophiles in the events that shocked much of the Western world....shocked but failed to move anyone to stop the slaughter with no intervention until the killing was over...and pale justice
past tense: Balkanized; past participle: Balkanized
divide (a region or body) into smaller mutually hostile states or groups."
This is an interesting text, an important read as it outlines the collusion of both Russia and France both Serbophiles in the events that shocked much of the Western world....shocked but failed to move anyone to stop the slaughter with no intervention until the killing was over...and pale justice
November 13, 2019
The book overall was very intriguing. I really enjoyed the historical context and importance of this sometimes forgotten about the event. It is also interesting how the book plays into the political arena today. I did sometimes find the book challenging to follow, as the author made the effort to use the traditional names of the people and places included and as a person who does not speak that language it was a tad difficult to keep track. Overall a very good book and interesting read for those who are interested in learning the difficult history of the Balkan war criminals.
May 11, 2025
Julian Borger's meticulously researched account provides an exceptional analysis of both the accomplishments and significant shortcomings in the international effort to apprehend those responsible for atrocities during the Balkan conflicts. Having spent considerable time in the region, particularly in Serbia and Bosnia, I found that Borger effectively captures the psychological underpinnings that continue to influence regional dynamics: the pervasive victim mentality among many Serbs and the profound desire for acknowledgment and recognition among Bosnians.
The book offers particularly insightful examination of the post-capture behaviors and courtroom demeanors of figures like Karadžić and Mladić during their International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) proceedings. These observations align precisely with the patterns I witnessed during my extensive time in the region, where historical narratives remain deeply contested.
Perhaps most valuable is Borger's unflinching assessment of the systemic failures that plagued multinational manhunt operations. The book expertly documents how interagency rivalries, diplomatic hesitations, and concerns about institutional reputation frequently hampered progress. Various nations and organizations often prioritized their public image over operational effectiveness, creating unnecessary obstacles to justice.
The Srebrenica massacre stands as the most harrowing testament to these failures. Yet the eventual capture of its orchestrators demonstrates how the persistence of dedicated individuals ultimately overcame institutional inertia. These hard-won successes established crucial precedents that have since informed subsequent international efforts to apprehend war criminals in other conflict zones.
"The Butcher's Trail" stands as an essential historical document that not only chronicles the pursuit of justice in the Balkans but also provides vital lessons on the complex interplay between diplomacy, military operations, and international law in the pursuit of accountability for crimes against humanity.
The book offers particularly insightful examination of the post-capture behaviors and courtroom demeanors of figures like Karadžić and Mladić during their International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) proceedings. These observations align precisely with the patterns I witnessed during my extensive time in the region, where historical narratives remain deeply contested.
Perhaps most valuable is Borger's unflinching assessment of the systemic failures that plagued multinational manhunt operations. The book expertly documents how interagency rivalries, diplomatic hesitations, and concerns about institutional reputation frequently hampered progress. Various nations and organizations often prioritized their public image over operational effectiveness, creating unnecessary obstacles to justice.
The Srebrenica massacre stands as the most harrowing testament to these failures. Yet the eventual capture of its orchestrators demonstrates how the persistence of dedicated individuals ultimately overcame institutional inertia. These hard-won successes established crucial precedents that have since informed subsequent international efforts to apprehend war criminals in other conflict zones.
"The Butcher's Trail" stands as an essential historical document that not only chronicles the pursuit of justice in the Balkans but also provides vital lessons on the complex interplay between diplomacy, military operations, and international law in the pursuit of accountability for crimes against humanity.
May 7, 2025
Quite an in depth book on the topic of the fall of Yugoslavia. The minute from the side of the main trio must be taken with a pinch of salt at times and read as fiction, but there is no doubt that the author has researched this book for the most part.
The involvement of western powers was heavy with no true explanation as to 'why', and no questions are asked nor is nothing mentioned about the role of the Americans in the collapse of Yugoslavia. Borger fails to expand upon his claim that the Kosovo war was started by Milošević and goes off the assumption that as he had a track record in Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia (albeit shortly), it must mean that he was responsible for the Kosovo war, something that easily misleads people, give that the Americans were knee deep in the breakaway of Kosovo and it becoming what is a present day failed state. One must scratch their heads at how western powers involves themselves as they please in conflicts and it is hard to imagine what would happen if the roles were reversed. Western powers were quick to intervene in genocide on European soil, but are content in turning a blind eye as genocide occurs right in front of all of our eyes in 2025. Double standards indeed, Borgers seems to deem intervention from the elitists as normal. Wrong he is.
I couldn't help feel that Borger has a deep hatred towards Serbs and uses every opportunity he has to thrown in petty little insults and digs which reduces his credibility and makes it harder to be neutral as a reader.
I'd recommend reading this, but this is a topic that requires a lot of reading, from many sides as taking what an Englishman whose government were heavily involved, and basing your whole opinion. on the topic would be unjust. The facts remain that what occurred in the downfall of Yugoslavia were tragic and these facts cannot be hidden.
The involvement of western powers was heavy with no true explanation as to 'why', and no questions are asked nor is nothing mentioned about the role of the Americans in the collapse of Yugoslavia. Borger fails to expand upon his claim that the Kosovo war was started by Milošević and goes off the assumption that as he had a track record in Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia (albeit shortly), it must mean that he was responsible for the Kosovo war, something that easily misleads people, give that the Americans were knee deep in the breakaway of Kosovo and it becoming what is a present day failed state. One must scratch their heads at how western powers involves themselves as they please in conflicts and it is hard to imagine what would happen if the roles were reversed. Western powers were quick to intervene in genocide on European soil, but are content in turning a blind eye as genocide occurs right in front of all of our eyes in 2025. Double standards indeed, Borgers seems to deem intervention from the elitists as normal. Wrong he is.
I couldn't help feel that Borger has a deep hatred towards Serbs and uses every opportunity he has to thrown in petty little insults and digs which reduces his credibility and makes it harder to be neutral as a reader.
I'd recommend reading this, but this is a topic that requires a lot of reading, from many sides as taking what an Englishman whose government were heavily involved, and basing your whole opinion. on the topic would be unjust. The facts remain that what occurred in the downfall of Yugoslavia were tragic and these facts cannot be hidden.
June 2, 2020
"He was put in a container in his evidence suit, and his clothes were taken from him," a former SAS officer involved in the arrest recalled. "He was sitting down on the sleeping bags and hadn't said anything. So one fo the guys walked in saying 'Cigarettes for the General Galic' and he piped up, 'That's me!'"
Regarding criminals on the Hague list following the Bosnian war: "There are the cold calculators who drew up their maps and then gave the necessary orders to the appropriate people. ... Then there are the Stakhanovites of murder with their prodigious appetite for bloodletting. The Bosnian conflict proved these people are around us, submerged like crocodiles, revealing their predatory nature only when the circumstances are decisively in their favor."
But instead Legija did something that - more than any other single action - marked the end of the Milesevic regime. He raised his arm and gave the three=finger salute to the crowd. His men removed their balaclavas and did the same. The protestors roared and triumphantly clambered onto the armored cars. The revolution has won the day.
Most of the surviving victims and families of the dead are appalled at the cushy conditions at Scheveningen, but the imbalance between the horror visited on them and the redress offered by any system of justice is unbridgeable anyway. For such crimes there will never be any such thing as closure and it was ever thus. In 1946, after the forty-seven minutes it to sentence the convicts and Nuremberg, the American journalist Martha Gellhorn observed: "Justice seemed very small suddenly. Of course it had to be, for there was no punishment great enough for such guilt."
The sounds of the slogans blocks out the murmurs of the bones buried under their feet.
Regarding criminals on the Hague list following the Bosnian war: "There are the cold calculators who drew up their maps and then gave the necessary orders to the appropriate people. ... Then there are the Stakhanovites of murder with their prodigious appetite for bloodletting. The Bosnian conflict proved these people are around us, submerged like crocodiles, revealing their predatory nature only when the circumstances are decisively in their favor."
But instead Legija did something that - more than any other single action - marked the end of the Milesevic regime. He raised his arm and gave the three=finger salute to the crowd. His men removed their balaclavas and did the same. The protestors roared and triumphantly clambered onto the armored cars. The revolution has won the day.
Most of the surviving victims and families of the dead are appalled at the cushy conditions at Scheveningen, but the imbalance between the horror visited on them and the redress offered by any system of justice is unbridgeable anyway. For such crimes there will never be any such thing as closure and it was ever thus. In 1946, after the forty-seven minutes it to sentence the convicts and Nuremberg, the American journalist Martha Gellhorn observed: "Justice seemed very small suddenly. Of course it had to be, for there was no punishment great enough for such guilt."
The sounds of the slogans blocks out the murmurs of the bones buried under their feet.
October 14, 2020
This excellent account of how the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) defied the odds and succeeded in capturing 65 of the 161 persons it indicted provides legal and historical background along with dramatic action and keeps them in balance.* This is an important story, and anyone who wants to understand post Cold War foreign policy should read it. It does not show the Western democracies in their best light, although they all eventually bought into the process and contributed. It does highlight the actions of many courageous individuals who made the first major war crimes trial since Nuremberg happen. The final chapter (13. The Legacy) is especially good because it sums up what was achieved and what was not, but more importantly it points out that the period of Russian cooperation with the West (or Russian weakness, depending on your point of view) during which the ICTY was created had ended by the time the last fugitive was caught (2011), and may never exist again. The very different aftermath of the disintegration of Syria testifies to how much has changed. Given that most armed conflict today is either complex civil war (like Congo and Libya) or great-power conflict fought by proxies (Syria and Yemen), it is doubtful whether international justice will ever be completely accepted by the community of nations. That makes it even more important for us to understand what the ICTY did.
*Ten died while at large, 2o had thier indictments withdrawn and the rest surrendered (more or less) voluntarily.
*Ten died while at large, 2o had thier indictments withdrawn and the rest surrendered (more or less) voluntarily.
January 14, 2017
The Butcher's Trail illuminates one of the darkest periods of the 1990's including details of the systematic ethnic cleansing by Serbs and Croats during the Yogoslav Wars. This book puts some perspective on the horror and helps the reader to better understand the scope and scale of the human tragedy of this series of conflicts beyond the headlines of that era.
It is also a fabulous man hunt spy vs. spy story that is wonderfully gripping. It covers the early efforts to organize UN operations in Bosnia in particular post conflict and some of the ineptitude that followed particularly with French, British, American, Israeli and Russian cooperation (or lack thereof). With renewed US involvement and some intelligent leadership the manhunt for the top 116 war criminals from those conflicts finally began in earnest and this book details the successful and creative ways that special forces helped to bring a majority of the priority criminals to The Hague before they died or were killed.
A must read to learn more about the horrors of one of the significant genocides of our era.
It is also a fabulous man hunt spy vs. spy story that is wonderfully gripping. It covers the early efforts to organize UN operations in Bosnia in particular post conflict and some of the ineptitude that followed particularly with French, British, American, Israeli and Russian cooperation (or lack thereof). With renewed US involvement and some intelligent leadership the manhunt for the top 116 war criminals from those conflicts finally began in earnest and this book details the successful and creative ways that special forces helped to bring a majority of the priority criminals to The Hague before they died or were killed.
A must read to learn more about the horrors of one of the significant genocides of our era.
July 12, 2023
Borger thoroughly explains the technical and military operations that were conducted in order to capture Balkan war criminals. He delves into the legal framework and the hurdle involved in trying to get an international organization like the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to be effective and successful. The interplay of powerful countries using conflicts as a proxy is obvious in the post-war proceedings that Borger describes. I have always been skeptical of the idea of strong international laws and an international government, but by the end of the book, I was quite convinced that the ICTY is proof that an international court, when given proper jurisdiction and venue, can be effective. It also verifies, however, that the culture of impunity and hegemonic power will shape the international court, thereby weakening its resolve.
This book is an excellent read for anyone interested in international relations, international law, and/or military strategy.
This book is an excellent read for anyone interested in international relations, international law, and/or military strategy.
April 30, 2018
This is an excellent book. It's written in a relatively light, journalistic style, rather than as a dense history book (not surprisingly, as the author is a journalist and not an academic historian). So it's very readable in a literate way.
The subject matter obviously contains a lot of sadness, but the real focus of the book is the way in which the war criminals were caught (or not, at least for some years). The tragedy of the terrible events that the criminals perpetrated is not covered in detail. And that's perhaps the right approach, in order to keep things focused.
It would be easy for a cynic to say that some of the bizarre events surrounding some of the manhunts tell themselves, but pulling all the various stories together into a flowing and readable narrative is testimony to the author's ability.
The subject matter obviously contains a lot of sadness, but the real focus of the book is the way in which the war criminals were caught (or not, at least for some years). The tragedy of the terrible events that the criminals perpetrated is not covered in detail. And that's perhaps the right approach, in order to keep things focused.
It would be easy for a cynic to say that some of the bizarre events surrounding some of the manhunts tell themselves, but pulling all the various stories together into a flowing and readable narrative is testimony to the author's ability.
June 14, 2021
Not the clearest narrative but thorough, perhaps too!
If you support international criminal courts operated by the UN then there is evidence to bolster your position. If not, you can at least understand some of the actions. I’m disturbed that people who kill hundreds at a time because of their ethnicity or race (genocide) get less incarceration than a money thief! But, given the UN behavior related to COVID I can’t support a standing International Criminal Court. When such a court needs to operate it needs to be organized at the time. I don’t particularly trust UN anything.
The author does.
If you support international criminal courts operated by the UN then there is evidence to bolster your position. If not, you can at least understand some of the actions. I’m disturbed that people who kill hundreds at a time because of their ethnicity or race (genocide) get less incarceration than a money thief! But, given the UN behavior related to COVID I can’t support a standing International Criminal Court. When such a court needs to operate it needs to be organized at the time. I don’t particularly trust UN anything.
The author does.
March 11, 2018
The beginning of this book really had me confused due to the lack of background knowledge on the Balkan war. The book moved at a fast pace and I constantly lost focus because of the multiple criminals and all the information thrown at me at once. I let go of the book for a while but, after my break from it the book really grabbed my attention as it followed one criminal for each of the last three chapters. I really enjoyed these last few chapters but the book as a whole was pretty disappointing.
March 18, 2019
Found this one a bit challenging to follow. Exceptionally little background of the Balkan conflicts was provided (a modicum was expected, honestly) and then the chronology jumped around significantly. Fully aware that there were several various counterparties, story lines, timetables, etc. the book jumps around so much that it can be difficult to reconstruct a consecutive narrative without having a good amount of prior knowledge on the subject.
May 7, 2020
I had expected a lot more from this book as I was eager to understand the background and history of the Srebrenica massacre but this one dives straight into the manhunt mission to catch perpetrators and present them before the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia. Historic as the verdict was and exciting as tracing the culprits and bringing them to the book was, my search for a better read on the subject with more more perspective and useful detailing continues.
August 12, 2022
The story of how the UN belatedly brought those responsible for Yugoslavia’s descent into hell to some kind of justice, in the first ever proper international trials of war criminals. A mix of the dramatic, the suspenseful, and the funny, without ever losing sight of the harrowing events that led to the manhunt in the first place.
January 10, 2024
A book that's incredibly illuminating and incredibly frustrating. Not because of anything the author did, it's just the content of the historical record itself. The last chapter sums up just how frustrating because of the lessons learned that, unfortunately, continue to be relevant and yet ignored by many in the international community today.
May 8, 2025
Very well-written book on an extraordinarily complex war and region. It’s very helpful to have a grasp of the history and the main perpetrators coming into reading the book to understand it fully. The author goes into great detail and insight that you wouldn’t know otherwise. Gripping read with countless emotions being invoked from rage to sorrow.
November 26, 2016
Excellent and important primer on the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans. Remembering this happened on the doorstep of Europe a generation ago and is happening today in other places in the word is an important reminder to all of us as to remain vigilant about human rights.
August 9, 2017
A very clear read about the ICTY and their generally successful hunt for war criminals. In many ways both heartening and depressing, as you can see it as a model for moving forward while you also see the evidence that we haven't.
November 29, 2017
Spot on, without political BS. Precise, colorful, amazing book from a guy that doesn't live in Bosnia/Croatia/Serbia! it's always tricky for an author to be realistic and not to take anyone's side. Julian aced it!
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