A Witness to Genocide: The 1993 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Dispatches on the "Ethnic Cleansing" of Bosnia [Paperback]

Roy Gutman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1993

A compilation of 1993 Pulitizer Prize-winning reports from the front lines of Bosnia, by a foreign correspondent for Newsday, provides firsthand evidence of the genocide perpetrated against Bosnia's Muslim population.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is an important and powerful book for establishing the historical record of the recent savage events in Bosnia. Gutman was among the first Western journalists to visit the "death camps" where Serbs tortured, raped, and slaughtered their prisoners--an act of deliberate policy, as the reports make clear. Gutman's reporting has won numerous awards, including the Pulitizer Prize and the George Polk Award, and this volume of his original dispatches from Newsday shows why. To some extent, there is nothing "new" here, but there is immense value in having these reports gathered together. What is the effect? Guilt. Shame. A sense that these events are truly reminiscent of the Nazi era--and the cowardice of the Neville Chamberlain period. As we contemplate both America's place in the post-Cold War world and Western moral strength, Gutman's book should head our list of essential reading.
- Henry Steck, SUNY-Cortland
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Gutman presents the Pulitzer Prize-winning releases that he wrote, between December 1991 and June_ 1993, describing in detail the violence of nationalist Serbs, the deportation of Muslims, the systematic rape, and other horrors from the battlefields of Bosnia. As a collection, these dispatches make difficult reading; they are repetitive and horrible, forcing cover-to-cover readers to inure themselves to the impact of the violence. What is valuable is the existence of these testimonies as an anecdotal historical record. Gutman begins with a long (30-some pages) author's note, in which he writes of the stories his conscience forced him to investigate, analyzes the historical role of world affairs and Yugoslavian domestic events in the present crisis, and criticizes world--pointedly, U.S.--response to the realities of this war. For the value of his too-short analysis and the historical value of the dispatches themselves, A Witness to Genocide belongs in libraries. Angus Trimnell

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: Lisa Drew Books; 1st Printing edition (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0020329954
• ISBN-13: 978-0020329954
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #744,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > History > Europe > Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • #74 in Books > History > Europe > Yugoslavia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for anyone interested in Current Affairs., February 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Witness to Genocide: The 1993 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Dispatches on the "Ethnic Cleansing" of Bosnia (Paperback)

This book provides excellent examples and background information about the tragedy that has occurred in Bosnia and is continuing in places such as Kosovo. It also pinpoints the cause of this genocide - The Yugoslav government and the Serbs. It is absolutely necessary for anyone interested in current affairs and the conflict in Bosnia.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Our world, October 5, 2003

By 

Kosovar (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Witness to Genocide: The 1993 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Dispatches on the "Ethnic Cleansing" of Bosnia (Paperback)

First of all, I'd like to praise Roy Gutman's for being an example of what an honest man should be. This is a book about
serbs and their terrifying crimes they've done in Bosnia, before they did the very same to Kosovo, and after they've done the very same in Croatia, and just a bit before that in Slovenia.As a Kosovar, and a serb victim too, the more I learn about
what might have spurred the serbs expose their long hidden cruel
fantasies towards Croatians,Bosnians,and Albanians too - the more I get confused. I mean I keep asking myself "Hey, did it really have to come to Bosnia...no less my country Kosovo, after
all we have seen what happened to Croatia. Well, it is more than
obvious that they were backed up and it would be most unfair even though everything is fair after all we have been through from their cruel unimaginable crimes - to label a western country
if not all of them - for letting this happen. I mean it is just as if I am a millionaire and in my doorsteps I see a dead-starved
beggar in my doorstep and not help him. I mean, come on, not that
I would actually give him some food but I'll make him a honoured member of my family...anyways...it's all blood (not water) under the bridge of west's silence. GO WEST!!! Serbs, regarding Bosnia
and Croatia will be forever grateful for that silence of yours. I mean how can they not??? But I am so sorry to say that because
you know your profession, I mean I am clueless what is it like to be a politician or a diplomat...but yeah anyways...what really
provoked tears was the writer's love for humanity and for what is right. He created an honest book even though he lived and considered Serbia as his homeland and he wasn't at all as the
corrupted gen.Lewis McKenzie who was paid to be a darkness to the (bosnian) serbs crimes by serbs themselves.I am so happy at the thought that McKenzie can not possibly enjoy the money he got from the serbs because that's the way it works, but the thing I am not sure of is "how can he sleep at night?", is he buying medicines to cure his then corrupted mind and clear his
consciousness of what he has done to thousands of children ( I am not mentioning the old people and other hundreds of thousands
victims). Goodness me, how safe are we when UN Generals can get in the payroll of the most dreadful criminals. If I was the law,
now when the waters have been cleared, general McKenzie, and some others who could have prevented genocides on innocent people (am not mentioning old people and hundreds of thousands civilians) I would all make them next door neighbours to where Milosevic is.At least, it wouldn't be that bad for them at all, because they may have missed him a lot - so it would have been a win-win situation. The justice would have been served and as I said they would have enjoyed being with each other. I wonder,did anyone ever thought about this that a non-serbian might be responsible for its irresponsibalities too??? I don't know, it makes to much sense to me that yes - someone else is responsible
too because it was obvious what the serbs are after.
Anyways, reading this book is just like reading all the books in Eastern European wars all caused by serbs. This book gives the very reason why did it all happen because it was written by a man who knew their language,their history,traditions, their everything and above all he was a witness to the genocide they committed. So,yeah, if you really want to know what spurred the serbs expose their true selves READ THIS BOOK and you'll see how and why did it all happen.

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Gutman Pulitzer prize, January 10, 2009

By 

John P. Maher (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Witness to Genocide: The 1993 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Dispatches on the "Ethnic Cleansing" of Bosnia (Paperback)

Roy Gutman's Witness to Genocide is false witness. Janet Cooke got dumped, but Roy Gutman has gone on to media stardom. The Pulitzer Prize winning writer of Witness to Genocide speaks American English, but from the text of "his" book I must infer that that someone other than an English-speaker wrote at least parts of the book. How do we know? Easy, if you're a language scholar. Teachers have fun cautioning their pupils about treacherous look-alike but mean-different words. French teachers call them "false friends -- faux amis". E.g. take the word "preservative." In English this refers to chemical additives that retard spoilage of foods. In Europe "preservatives" are condoms.--At table once in an Alpine village I had to interpret for an American lady who had just nonplussed her Italian hosts with her recipe for home-baked bread --"I never use preservatives." Tell-tale examples of faux amis indicate that no American, but a Yugoslav hand, wrote several passages of "Witness". See page 51. Pseudo-Gutman wrote ".. genitals plucked out." A speaker of idiomatic English knows that, while Anglo-Saxon eyes are plucked out, our genitals are cut off.
Pages 55 and 57: no English-speaker would ever have written "his back was blue and red from the blows." Our backs are only beaten black and blue. Gutman's Pulitzer should be returned.