Thirty years later, some of the witnesses are still alive and still remember the names. That is the thing no archive can replace, and the thing feared by everyone who thought time alone would erase them.

American investigators have opened an inquiry into war crimes committed against Serbs between 1992 and 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The hearings were held in Derventa, where five American investigators heard the testimony of two survivors of the camps, Zeljko Stajcic and Drago Knezevic.

Knezevic, president of the association of camp detainees from Derventa, said the American investigators focused in particular on the brothers Muris and Haris Skelic, suspected of crimes against Serbs in Derventa in 1992. He added that the suspects obtained work permits and visas for the US on the basis of false claims that they had not taken part in the war.

If that is true, then the question is hard in itself: how does someone fleeing accountability for war crimes end up with tidy documents in the very country now investigating them? According to sources, testimony from eight more survivors is scheduled in the coming days, and the investigation also covers the Rabic camps and the former Army House in Cardak.

Among the witnesses is Milenko Milanovic from Bijeljina, who stated that around a thousand Serb prisoners were held in the barracks in Visoko between 1992 and 1993. He submitted documentation and a book written on the basis of his diary from captivity, in which the names of guards and torturers are listed.

The Balkans have a long tradition in one thing: everyone counts only their own victims and sets everyone else's aside. That is why any investigation seeking to establish what actually happened, regardless of who launched it, is more than necessary. The question is not whose victims matter more. The question is whether anyone will finally answer for it, or whether this too will remain one more page in an archive that no one opens.