Do medico-legal truths have more power than war lies? About the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and in Kosovo.

War crimes perpetrated during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and in Kosovo prompted medicolegal investigations of mass graves as required by the International Criminal Tribunal (ICT). In spite of natural and methodological boundaries, these investigations were able to help to identify the victims and to discover the clues and evidence that are likely to support objectively the indictments brought by the ICT. However, the medico-legal data cannot explain everything. They should be exploited very carefully in order to avoid any error of interpretation.