Chapter Three: From Srebrenica to The Hague

Considering the role of The Hague as City of Peace and Justice, the absence of a memorial as a global symbol of international justice at the site where all the existing information has been gathered and legally processed is striking. That even today in the Netherlands, no official policy has been developed for public education and commemoration of the largest and bloodiest European war since World War II is even more surprising given that the country was directly involved in at least three ways: as one of the most ardent supporters of military intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina; as the host country of the ICTY, and as receiving country for tens of thousands of Bosnian and other Yugoslav refugees, with Srebrenica meanwhile reverberating as a national trauma. These issues are the subject of this chapter, the first and longest part of which deals with the Bosnian war and the events that led to the genocide in Srebrenica, the failed UN peacekeeping mission of Dutchbat, and the legal processing of the UN Yugoslavia Tribunal. The second section examines the evolution of the ICTY at Churchillplein 1 in The Hague, and the reciprocal influence between the ICTY and the growing global media attention it attracted. The final section will address the legal significance and impact of the Hague Tribunal as a legal monument for the development of international criminal law in a new relation to human rights and the principle of transitional justice.