Lieven told me Dragić had no friends in the detention centre. He lifted weights and watched television. Of course he did not fit in with the generals and politicians. I asked what else there was to do. Lieven said some detainees liked working with clay and made primitive figurines of animals and roses. But not Dragić.

Lieven said, You do not have to worry about what they do.

He put his hands around my waist and I asked, But does he talk with no one?

He likes to smoke. I’m not supposed to talk about these things, especially to the media.

I am not media.

You will write about this trial. It is why you are here. Your friend does little, Goat, lies on his bed. He is a woesteling.

What’s that?

A criminal, you know, like a low form of man, a beast.

I asked how a man could want to hurt a woman with his own body in this way.

Lieven said, You do not ask the right question. A soldier only sees an enemy.

A beast, I said. Not human. Do you think Dragić would rape again?

Lieven got impatient then, said, He is a man at war inside himself. He won’t have a chance again. I am not going to waste my time at night thinking about him. I have to guard him all day.

War makes murderers of ordinary men.

Not all men. He is a brute. War took away constraints and he found none inside himself. Are you tired of talking yet?

Yes.

Is this okay? he asked as he unbuttoned my blouse.

Yes.

He said, Your questions are sad and strange.

—

William Steyn was on his feet again. He moved with ease, his body concentrated but relaxed, and he appeared to enjoy the performance part of a trial. He was one of those rare mature men blessed with confidence. He was here because he wanted to do something meaningful. Later I read that he was the first in his immigrant family to be educated. He had grown bored, wanted the stimulation of being in a world court, wanted to work with new people from many legal traditions. Back at home his neglected marriage was over. His children grown. And here he loved the new challenges and the high stakes.

They had been questioning a military historian, and near the end of his cross-questioning, Judge Romano asked Steyn to make a connection between a campaign of ethnic cleansing, which Mr. Dragić claimed he was unaware of, and the particular crime of rape.

Romano had rarely spoken during all the months of proceedings. I put down my sketching and listened carefully.

Steyn responded, The court has heard from three generations of women in the same family. This illustrates an attempt to destroy the past, present and future of a community and ultimately, a population.

He reiterated that the court had heard from witnesses about a single man. He reminded the court of the thousands of pages of written statements submitted from victims throughout the region who had not been brought to testify.