The political situation is far from settled in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and ethnic and nationalistic tensions still simmer. Parsons worries that international interest could fizzle before the job is done, even though he believes tracking down the missing is central to societal reconstruction. Not only does it allow families to know the truth at last, but it brings everyone face-to-face with concrete statistics. In Srebrenica some still insist that only 2,300 died in a fair military battle. But the evidence from graves tells a different story. As Parsons puts it: "We have gone from people who were being driven to extinction and crammed into the earth 10 years ago, to [families] being given their rights back, their homes back, their legal status back." DNA forensics is restoring humanity not just to the dead, it appears, but to the living as well.

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