Description

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Now updated and in paperback, the gripping story of how--and against what odds--the perpetrators of Balkan genocide were subjected to the most successful manhunt in history.

Written with a thrilling narrative pull, The Butcher's Trail chronicles the pursuit and capture of the Balkan war criminals indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. Borger recounts how Ratko Mladić--now on trial in The Hague--and recently convicted Radovan Karadžić were finally tracked down, and describes the intrigue behind the arrest of Slobodan Milošević, the Yugoslav president who became the first head of state to stand before an international tribunal for crimes perpetrated in a time of war. Based on interviews with former special forces soldiers, intelligence officials, and investigators from a dozen countries--most speaking about their involvement for the first time--this book reconstructs a fourteen-year manhunt carried out almost entirely in secret.
Indicting the worst war criminals that Europe had known since the Nazi era, the ICTY ultimately accounted for all 161 suspects on its wanted list, a feat never before achieved in political and military history.

About the Author

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Julian Borger is the diplomatic editor for The Guardian. He covered the Bosnian War for the BBC andThe Guardian, and returned to the Balkans to report on the Kosovo conflict in 1999.  He has also served as The Guardian’s Middle East correspondent and its Washington bureau chief. Borger was part of theGuardian team that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service journalism for its coverage of the Snowden files on mass surveillance. He was also on the team awarded the 2013 Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) medal and the Paul Foot Special Investigation Award in the UK.

Praise For…

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“In Butcher’s Trail, Julian Borger, an award-winning Guardian journalist, tells the full story of the ‘world’s most successful manhunt’ for the first time. He unearths stunning details about how it all came about and traces the pursuit of the Balkan butchers with film-worthy narrative flair. Written like a thriller, there are tragic and even comic moments — like when U.S. forces hoped to wear a gorilla suit to distract their quarry, or when British soldiers grabbed the wrong set of twins…More than just a riveting tale, Borger’s book is a thoughtful reflection on the mixed legacy of the war crimes tribunal and the challenge of bringing even a semblance of justice to a land traumatized by ethnic conflict.” —FOREIGN POLICY