The Key to My Neighbor's House: Seeking Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda

By Steven P. Demme

Examining competing notions of justice in Bosnia and Rwanda, award-winning Boston Globe correspondent Elizabeth Neuffer convinces readers that crimes against humanity cannot be resolved by talk of forgiveness, or through the more common recourse to forgetfulness As genocidal warfare engulfed the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the international community acted too late to prevent unconscionable violations of human rights in both countries. As these states now attempt to reconstruct their national identities, the surviving victims of genocide struggle to come to terms with a world unhinged. Interviewing victims and aggressors, war orphans and war criminals, Serbian militiamen and NATO commanders, Neuffer explores the extent to which genocide erodes a nation's social and political environment, just as it destroys the individual lives of the aggressor's perceived enemies. She argues persuasively that only by achieving justice for these people can domestic and international organizations hope to achieve lasting peace in regions destroyed by fratricidal warfare.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312302827
• ISBN13: 9780312302825
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A GREAT COMPANION

Neuffer has written a great companion to the works of Gourevitch and Samantha Power. A Key... is somewhat more intense, powerful reading. It is a primary source compilation of the horror stories that were Bosnia and Rwanda. Keeping track of all the players and respective groups is a little difficult, but it is for anyone covering the former Yugoslav episode. What is lacking there, is more than compensated for, with the emotionally...

The Most Honest Book Yet

I just finished The Key To My Neighbor's House. Being a survivor of the Bosnian war of 1992, this book really brought some sense of justice and understanding for me. I've read many books about the war in Bosnia, but none were as accurate as The Key To My Neighbor's House. Most of the books I've read about the war in Bosnia mostly focus on the political side of the war. The Key To My Neigbor's House tells the real,true story...

Needed justice and the hope and healing it can bring.

Hope - this book is about needed justice and the hope and healing it can bring.My journey to Rwanda this year prompted me to delve into the tyrannical torture and terror that swept this small, poor nation in 1994. In 1994, over a period 100 days, over one million people were butchered. It is such a staggering number that it is hard to comprehend. Just to write the first names of the murdered down would take you 2 ½ years,...

Justice in Bosnia and Rwanda

The book is outstanding! Neuffer follows individuals' experiences of the events, which makes the story more human for the reader. And at the same time she demonstrates a very sophisticated understanding of even some of the most esoteric legal issues involved. I also appreciate the fact that the bibliography and endnotes are exhaustive, which makes the book invaluable to anyone doing research on the topics involved.

Poignant Testament to the Power of Bearing Witness

Elizabeth Neuffer has written a poignant testament to the power of bearing witness, the responsibility of the individual to bear witness, and the healing power of bearing witness. Her book is also an examination into why so many refused to bear witness when it was in their power, and most certainly their responsibility, to do so.By writing this book, Ms. Neuffer makes us witnesses too; not only to the genocide that took place...