From Public Articulation to Institutional Recognition: The Milan Investigation, the Sarajevo “Human Safari”, and European Memory Politics

Sammanfattning

This thesis navigates the delicate terrain of memory and recognition. It focuses on the Milan investigation, which is an ongoing criminal investigation launched by prosecutors in Milan in 2025 into allegations that foreign nationals paid Bosnian Serb forces during the Siege of Sarajevo (1992–1996) for opportunities to shoot at civilians. Although claims concerning such activities had circulated for years, the investigation was prompted by a criminal complaint and renewed public attention following the release of the documentary Sarajevo Safari, which featured testimonies from witnesses and Sarajevo residents regarding the alleged events. As of 2026, the case remains with ongoing hearings and prosecutions, but no final judicial conclusions have been reached. This investigation raises a wider thought concerning European memory politics in the question of how a violent memory can stay non-institutionalized for almost three decades, before its public articulation makes it visible enough for institutions to react? Through the qualitative analysis of media and institutional documents, the thesis looks at how the Milan investigation changes the nature of the memory's publicness. It does not consider the investigation as an act of recognition, but rather as the point in time when a fragmented memory becomes identifiable, repeatable, and politically actionable. Through comparing this act of recognition with other recognized memories, especially genocide and totalitarian regimes in Europe, the thesis argues that visibility alone is not enough. The Milan case reveals a gap in European memory politics in the recognition of a memory that has already come to be. The case of Milan is instructive in pointing out the obvious delay in the recognition of the problem in the context of European memory politics. Even assuming that this investigation will never lead to any conclusion, the very fact that such a memory exists, which has been kept out of the political discourse for almost thirty years, holds a political meaning on its own. Problems of this kind must not depend on the legal outcome of an investigation to be taken into consideration as part of the moral and political landscape of Europe.