Killing the dead: The logic of cemetery destruction during genocidal campaigns

Abstract

This paper contends that cultural destruction during genocidal campaigns is a dimension of genocide itself and is evidence of the intent to completely erase the targeted group from existence. It focuses on a powerful, yet under‐examined, form of cultural violence, namely the destruction of cemeteries and graveyards. My argument will be demonstrated through the localised case study of the town of Zvornik, Bosnia–Herzegovina, and the destruction of two Muslim cemeteries that took place there during genocidal campaigns against the Muslim communities of Bosnia–Herzegovina in the 1992–1995 war.