Srebrenica

Close to the Palais des Nations (yesterday's blip) is a memorial to the more than eight thousand people - mainly men and boys - who were killed at Srebrenica in Bosnia in 1995. Srebrenica was one of the UN 'safe areas' in Bosnia - I was posted to another one, Tuzla, neither of which was at all safe. Thousands of civilians had gathered in Srebrenica and were supposedly 'protected' by a small UN force of Dutch soldiers. When the Bosnian Serb Army moved to take Srebrenica the UN peacekeepers left. The women, girls younger boys and older people walked out, some of them doing so through minefields... and I was one of the teams receiving them and supporting them. The men and boys were not so fortunate. Those few who made terrifying escapes through the forests gradually arrived in Tuzla telling the most horrific stories.

It was a very profound experience to see the failure of the UN and international community to prevent genocide in Europe, and the withdrawal of the Dutch troops led to the resignation of the entire Dutch Government. It was the events of Srebrenica that led me to do the job I do today and I shall never forget those days and weeks of interviewing people about what happened there nor the stories they told in often horrific detail.

There's a tough to watch but fantastic documentary Cry from the Grave about the events at Srebrenica which uses real footage from Serbian film crews that accompanied Gen. Mladic ('Butcher of the Balkans') into Srebrenica, and from Dutch soldier's camcorders. Mladic is currently residing at The Hague.