The Media Negotiations of War Criminals and Their Memoirs

Abstract

The literature on transitional justice in former Yugoslavia holds that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) proceedings, meant to establish the facts about the past, punish the perpetrators of mass violence, and even facilitate reconciliation, have led to the unexpected transformation of convicted war criminals into heroes in their home countries. Drawing on cultural criminology, the article looks at the phenomenon of “criminal celebrity,” which emerges at the juncture between public personality, intensive media attention, and high audience resonance. Considering that this transformation largely depends on the ability of different actors, including the convicts themselves, to create socially acceptable public personalities by reframing crimes, and their contexts and perpetrators, this article looks at the attempts to create such alternative accounts in the memoirs of the convicts, and in the media. This article argues that the mediation of war criminals in the ICTY facilitated a new type of criminal celebrity—the “ICTY celebrity,” who emerges from his/her relation to an allegedly unjust legal authority, rather than to the crimes. The ICTY celebrity is not a hero, known for heroic deeds or achievements—instead, his main function is to represent a flattering and consoling narrative about the past, enabling wide identification within the ethnic community.