Dijana Sarzinski '05 is among the scientists highlighted in The Guardian who is working to identify the bodies of those killed in Bosnia in the early 1990s.
From the article:
The bodies from Tomašica, like those from all around Krajina, come first to that facility on the edge of Sanski Most. Forensic anthropologist Dijana Sarzinski’s role here is testimony to Bosnia’s global leadership in this expertise: from Sarajevo, she studied at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and then at the University of Central Lancashire in England, before coming home to join ICMP as an intern.
The standard operating practice here is the world’s “gold standard,” says Sarzinski. Remains are meticulously washed, and a biological profile established. Scientists and technicians work in silence, clad in blue tunics and masks, washing body matter, cleaning bones with toothbrushes. The bones are subject to a physical decontamination, followed by removal of any exogenous DNA that may have attached itself. A small sample of bone – a “bone window” – is then extracted with precision blades, to be passed on to the laboratories. “We’re not allowed, as anthropologists, to determine a cause of death – that’s for the pathologists,” says Sarzinski. “But we can prepare the cases and point out possible causes.” The single bullet holes through the skulls of these men from Hozića Kamen are articulate enough.