Žonglování s čísly: odhady počtu obětí občanské války v Bosně a Hercegovině a jejich odlišná interpretace

This study focuses on interpretive discrepancies in evaluating numbers of victims in the war between the constitutive nations of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Varying interpretations of research conducted on the numerical population losses have been caused by the long-term absence of a postwar population census. This article analyzes and summarizes discrepant calculations of the overall number of victims and the proportional losses of the individual nations. These sources were quantified by experts from the ranks of the nations involved in the conflict, demographers of the former Yugoslavia and also foreign researchers using varied methodological approaches. Their inconsistent, and in places entirely contradictory calculations (and subsequent interpretations) clearly illustrate to what extent the statistical discipline relies on the relevance of the data that is entered into calculations, and to what extent it can be used or abused for political purposes. At its conclusion, this contribution summarizes the partial quantitative data and its relevance in the reconstruction of an approximate range of the number of victims in the Bosnian conflict.