March 11, 2006

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  The Hague, Centre of the Universe for a day

  
  

   

  
  

  I have this annoying habit of trying to keep up with the news wherever I am. During each and every commercial break, I switch to the TV text service to find out whether or not the planet has been hit by a giant meteorite, or to see if the Loch Ness monsters have already begun their annual trek. My cellphone has at least twenty news channels including CNN and CNBC, and Ie bookmarked several dozens of news websites. Usually, a TV window with CNN or the BBC news channel murmurs unobtrusively in one corner of my computer screen. And when I’m on holiday, I always bring a shortwave radio with me lest I should miss out on the outbreak of yet another war. I know, I know, it sounds a bit obsessive, but that’s what being an editor is all about.

  
  

   

  
  

  Today, when Ren嶪 and I returned home from the bird shelter, I read that war crime suspect Slobodan Milosovic had quite unexpectedly died in his Former Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal prison cell.  Which is of particular interest to me, because this prison is situated right here in our city. Earlier this week, another Yugoslav war crime suspect called Babic committed suicide in the same prison compound. Milosovic, the former Yugoslav president, is said to have been responsible for the death of at least 200,000 men, women and children  during the Yugoslav war in the mid-90s. Ignoring the complex legal discussions about formal responsibility, being the president and C-in-C of the Serbian troops during that period, makes him guilty as hell as far as I’m concerned.

  
  

  The Dutch I’m afraid to say, don have a very clean record when it comes to the former Yugoslavia. After the collapse of the old communist regime, old territorial and ethnic disputes flared up again amongst the states that once made up the Yugoslav People Republic. UN peacekeeping troops were flown in, and in 1995 a Dutch UN-contingent was ordered to defend the mainly muslim population of a Bosnian town called Srebrenica. A strong, heavily armed force of Serb veteran troops commanded by one of Milosevic’s most notorious henchmen, gen. Mladic, advanced on the town. After UN air support had been denied, supposedly because the request didn’t have the right format, the Dutch commander, lt.-col. Karremans saw no other option than to let the Serb troops pass to prevent his own troops from being wiped out. Karremans even raised a glass of local schnapps with Mladic, misguidedly thinking that this was a time-honoured and chivalric tradition amongst military commanders of opposing forces after a defeat. And a defeat it was. Not so much for Karremans, who flew back to the comfort of Dutch suburbia, nor any of his soldiers, but for the 7000 Bosnian civilian refugees in Srebrenica who were subsequently slaughtered by the Serb troops during the five days that followed that fateful day in July 1995.

  
  

   

  
  

  The seemingly endless series of  formal inquiries that followed this tragedy, held our nation in their grip for a long time. I even saw one of my former colleagues testify on tv before a investigative committee. The poor man, a ministry of defence photographer, had inadvertently ruined a number of camera stills that were entrusted to his care and purportedly contained crucial pictures of the mass graves, shortly after the massacre. The capture of Milosovic a few years later, offered little to balance the trauma that was felt in the Netherlands over the Srebrenica genocide.

  
  

   

  
  

  Once or twice a week, I discuss the Yugoslav war trials that are being held here in The Hague with a rather eccentric colleague of mine who works in the room next to me. He a leading expert on international law, and has been appointed by the Yugoslav war crime  tribunal to monitor the legal standards of several cases, including that of Milosovic who refused legal counsel from day One. It a real advantage for a news addict like me to have such a prominent source close by. There a downside to it as well though, since he sort of harassing me into starting a  Ph.D. research with him being my supervisor. So far, Ie not succumbed to his friendly, but relentless offers since I wouldn know where to find the time to embark on such a task. But I really curious about what hel have to say next Monday. From a legal point of view, Il expect him to say that justice has not been served, but I expect his more mundane side to add something like erves the f****r right’.

  
  

   

  
  

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  Bird shelter pic: young Nile Goose

  • 1:35 pm
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