Here is an excellent piece by RFE/RL on the work of Mirsad Tokaca who has been working hard to give definitive numbers for people killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1990s’ conflicts.

He comes out at some 97,000 people killed. A terrible number, of course, but way lower than the 200,000 people usually quoted by Sarajevo officials and the international media.

Is it good that his well researched number is a lot lower, because (obviously) fewer people died?

Or is it bad, because it serves directly or indirectly to play down the acts of genocide committed against the Bosniacs/Muslims in particular?

One critic argues that these figues do not fully take into account the dire longer-term ‘demographic’ impact of all these deaths – what of the children who according to reasonable trends might have been born (had the war not started) who in fact were not born?

Plus some people say that even Tokaca’s figure is too high – people recorded by Tokaca’s database as being dead turn out to be alive and well.

Doing one’s honest best to tell the truth. Never an easy policy anywhere, let alone in a messy post-conflict situation where important political and other interests may require a different and less meticulous version of reality to be True?