ABSTRACT
International war crimes tribunals, apart from representing a desire to institute impartial justice where otherwise moral chaos would rule, are also fundamentally a form of international intervention in a civil or regional conflict between national groups or states. There are two main dimensions to the war crimes tribunals' work that facilitate the achievement of reconciliation. The first one is shifting the blame from entire nations to guilty individuals by bringing those guilty of war crimes to justice. The second dimension is impeccable impartiality. Most war crimes occur as parts of an organized campaign. There are rarely equally many war criminals on all sides in any conflict, and especially in civil wars. The ICTY has slowly adopted the massive imposition strategy since 1996, although in a modified version. The balloon of intervention may "blow out" if troops pull out, and if that happens in the short-to-medium term, the international court disappears along with the massive intervention effort.
