Thursday, January 31, 2013
The UN at Work in The Hague: The Trial of Radovan Karadzic, former President of the Republic of Serbia
Dr. Bryja, Tyler, Idrienne, Keon and I witnessed history
today. We sat within 25 feet of Radovan
Karadzic with only a thick glass wall between us and this perpetrator of
genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Karadzic is on trial along with many others
at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the building
opposite the World Forum Convention Centre where THIMUN takes place. The trial is open to the public (observers
must be at least 16 years old) so the world can bear witness to the evil and
injustices of war. The Tribunal’s goal
is to hold political and military leaders accountable for their actions, most
especially abominable crimes such as murder, rape and mass killings of
civilians.
After the fall of communism in the early 1990s, the former
Yugoslavia’s ethnic and religious tensions caused the breakup of the country
into many self-declared republics including Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia. This led to full-scale war along religious
and ethnic lines. Europe and the world were
slow to intervene, resulting in the worst genocide since the end of World War
II.
The Tribunal issued its first indictment in 1994 when it was
established by UN Security Council Resolution 827. Karadzic was indicted shortly thereafter for
the genocide in Srebrenica where 8000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men were
systematically murdered by the Serbian Army.
Karadzic had been in hiding in Belgrade, Serbia until he was found in
2008. Shortly thereafter he was
transferred to The Hague where he has been on trial since 2009.
We spent a good hour watching the proceedings. The prosecution had already rested its case
so the defense was calling witnesses on its behalf. Karadzic, a doctor of psychiatry by training,
serves as his own lawyer. He and the
prosecuting attorney were questioning the latest witness, a commander of the
Serbian secret police in Bosnia. The proceeding
was surreal; so hard to imagine the people, places and crimes described as
events that actually occurred in our lifetime.
The importance of place and the work of the United Nations
struck home for my students and me.
Tomorrow we will visit the Palace of Peace, the home of the UN’s International
Court of Justice.
Ms. Vardi
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wednesday: AM - THIMUN Conference and PM - Amsterdam
Today was the third day of the conference. We only had sessions in the morning until 12:45
(Sami and I are in the Economic and Social Council) and then in the afternoon we
went to Amsterdam by bus which was a very enjoyable bus trip. We visited the Rijks Museum, the national museum
of the Netherlands, where we saw several paintings including Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, and Vermeer’s Kitchen Maid. After the museum trip, we took a walk and
tried to find a good restaurant to eat. We went through the busy shopping
street with lots of trams, buses and bicycles. Finally we found a restaurant
called Bouf, where the food was
amazing. We liked it so much; we even
loved the bread before the meal. After
the delicious dinner, we found an ice skating rink which was close to the
museum and skated. We really had fun
skating, even though I fell into a small pond of water. I
still enjoyed the skating so much, and I hope we can go again. After skating, we
went to a coffee bar and had some wonderful hot chocolate and ice-cream. The
bus came to pick us up at 9:30 pm and we rode the one hour bus ride back to The
Hague and ended this amazing day!
Thomas Liu
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Tuesday at THIMUN
Today was the second day of the conference in The Hague. At
7 AM Mrs. Vardi woke us up, we quickly took our showers and dressed for
breakfast. Afterward we walked over to
the World Forum Convention Center and separated into our committees.
Today was the first real day. After lobbying yesterday, we proceeded to opening
speeches which lasted from 9am-1pm. The nations and non-governmental Organizations
were allowed only one minute for their opening speeches, which ranged from the
most serious of speeches to the most humorous including jokes. After the
opening speeches from all of the countries, we headed downstairs to lunch. We
each got a brown bag consisting of cheese sandwiches and for sides we got
apples, yogurt, muffins and either soda or water to drink.
After lunch we headed back up to our conference rooms and
the debates started. The first debate ran from 2pm to 4pm, and in my committee
the first resolution was about ways to save the environment through carbon
capturing. This resolution eventually did not pass after several hours of
debating and amendments. We started our debates on the second resolution till
5pm, when we adjourned the meeting and were told by the chair that debating
would resume tomorrow.
After the conferences we head back to the hotel four blocks
away and quickly changed and walked over to this little Italian restaurant on
Frederik Hendriklaan road. Here our foods ranged from pizza to pasta. At dinner
we bumped into a couple of delegations, which we had made friends with while at
this conference.
We headed back to the convention center for the evening’s
entertainment: a Dutch movie entitled, Rabat, viewed in the World Forum Theater. The story followed three best friends
traveling from the Netherlands to Morocco on a road trip. The movie depicted how important friendships
are and about how important and complex ethnic identities are. The three friends were sons of Moroccan and
Tunisian immigrants who had experienced all the trials and tribulations of
newcomers to a country. After the movie
its producer, Julius Ponten, and the lead actor, Nasrdin Dchar, answered
questions about the film. Mr. Dchar had one the Dutch equivalent of “Best Actor”
for his role in the film. Questions
ranged from simple plot questions to more personal ones, such as how the movie
influenced the actor’s and producer’s lives.
We had a full day today as the movie showing and questions ended
at 10pm. We headed back to our hotel to
get a good night sleep for the big day we have tomorrow: conference in the morning and a trip to Amsterdam
in the afternoon and evening.
Keon Manesh
Monday, January 28, 2013
Conference - Opening Day
After a wholesome and filling European breakfast consisting
of fresh assortments of bread, cheeses, and meats, we were energized for a full
day of lobbying and whatever questions any delegate wanted to throw at us. We
walked through The Hague with melting snow covering the streets and the wind
blowing in our faces all prepared for our first day of debate at The Hague
International Model United Nations Conference. We walked through the doors and
were engulfed by the sea of anxious students from all over the world. From
there, each of us went to our respective rooms and immediately began the
lobbying process. We talked with students from countries such as France, Belgium,
Ecuador, China, Croatia and many more. I was pleasantly surprised to reunite
with one of my Egyptian friends from the Genoa Model UN conference which shows
how small the world really is. In the lobbying process, each member of our
delegation found a way to merge clauses from their resolutions into another
resolution which illustrates the true spirit of the United Nations which is
multilateral diplomacy through cooperation and compromise. After successfully
merging our clauses, forging alliances, and contributing to the completion of
resolutions we refueled at lunch while meeting new people. We took group
pictures which I hope turned out pretty nice. After we finished taking
pictures, we went to the opening ceremony where Idrienne and Ashlyn served as
Ambassadors of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of Asia and
the Pacific while I held our organization’s flag in the flag parade. We didn’t
waste any time after the day ended because we came back to the hotel, changed
clothes, and went right to the city center. We had dinner at a Mexican Restaurant
where everyone had their fair share of flour tortillas, rice, vegetables, and
steak. Overall, today was a solid day and I can’t wait until tomorrow!
Tyler Allen
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Delft, The Hague, and Evening Fun
Today we spent the morning in the
city of Delft, where we got a private tour of the city by Mr. Jan
Vijftigschild, a great tour guide. We walked through the city and even went to
an area of cobblestone that formally held a medieval marketplace. Around the
wide-open area was shops. Most were closed and the square was empty due to the
fact that it was Sunday and a lot of people were sleeping in and others were at
church. On one side was a huge Gothic church, Nieuwe Kerk, made out of three
different kinds of materials. The tombs of the Dutch royal family starting with
William of Orange, lie in the crypt of the church. On the other side was an old Dutch townhall,
Stadhuis.
The highlight of the day was when we
went to a Pancake shop (the Dutch are known for pancakes) named William van
Orange. It was the same one which Bill Clinton ate while he was in the
Netherlands. Most of us got either strawberries or bananas on ours. It was
GOOD!!! Afterward we walked to a souvenir shop where most of us bought Delft
Blue pottery.
We then traveled back to The Hague
and registered for the conference. We each got conference ID cards with our
names and pictures on them. Later, Tyler and Idrienne went to the Heads of
Non-Member Delegations briefing conference meeting ( we will represent a non-member state:
the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) and
the rest of us went to the Gemeentemuseum, a municipal museum with lots of art.
There, we saw an exhibit on 1950’s clothing, another on the history of Delft Blue
pottery, and a third on the Dutch masters including Rembrandt and Vermeer.
At night we took a tram to the city
center and attempted to eat at an Indonesian restaurant that our tour guide
recommended. We sat down and the waiter told us what we wanted to order as not
big enough for everyone, but the real reason was that it was not expensive
enough. We decided to leave and go to another restaurant but the line to get
food was too long (full of MUN delegates from all over the world) and there
were no tables for nine of us. Three times the charm we ended up eating at an
Italian restaurant that had great pizza.
Once we left the restaurant we went
to the tram station where we met a fellow conference delegation originally from
the US but now stationed on a US naval base in Belgium. Two of them were
siblings and originally lived outside DC in Calvert County and even knew
someone some of us know.
In the process of talking to them
our tram came but we did not open the door fast enough. It seems you have to
push a button on the outside of the tram to open. Then we had to wait an extra ten plus minutes
for another tram to come. While waiting for the second tram a bus got stuck
behind a car parked in the middle of the street and started honking a rhythm
until the car driver came out and moved their car. Once the driver came out, he
started mimicking the horn rhythm with his horn. It went on for a few minutes
and we laughed really hard. Then, the tram finally ended up coming and we
realized it was the same one that left us earlier.
Before bed we all met and talked
about the upcoming conference. Good Night!!!
Fun Facts from our tour guide:
(by Andrew Goldberg)
Saturday, January 26, 2013
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