A recent New York Times article describes the world of comfort – and perhaps even luxury – that war criminals are provided with at The Hague, Netherlands.
I don’t have a gym, a personal trainer, or a spiritual room in my tiny bedroom. On my (soon to be) non-profit salary, I certainly won’t be able to afford a visit to the Netherlands anytime in the near future. However, former warlords and human rights violators are getting all these amenities and more. Here’s a picture from the article of one of the “detention” cells in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). It looks to be about the same size as the room I currently live in, and it’s much better furnished.
The dorm and apartment-style living quarters provided to war criminals – such as Thomas Lubanga and Charles Taylor – who are being tried at the ICTY, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) are downright luxurious, particularly compared to the poor living conditions suffered by the general population in the countries they come from (Sierra Leone and the DRC, for instance).
Perhaps worse, these individuals, who often own numerous properties and large sums of money hidden away in offshore accounts, are receiving free legal aid from the ICC which costs a minimum of €35,000 per month. And the most unsettling part of the story is that family members from Sierra Leone and the DRC receive travel subsidies to visit their detained relatives in the Hague. While I wholeheartedly believe that even warlords and human rights abusers should have the right to a fair trial and continue to enjoy their basic human rights, I too feel that these perks go too far.
Look at the living conditions in Sierra Leone, literally one of the poorest countries on the planet. Look at the quality of justice in many African countries, where individuals who are imprisoned for crimes like robbery, homosexuality, or even witchcraft are essentially sentenced to death simply because the conditions in prisons are so wretched. Where prisoners live in overcrowded rooms and own only one pair of clothing. Where sanitation is poor and diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis are prevalent. Where they receive perhaps one meal a day, a corn mush which completely lacks in any nutritional value. Where individuals can be held on remand – without even going to trial and being convicted – in similarly horrible conditions for years with no hope of ever seeing a lawyer.
I’m not saying that warlords don’t deserve fair trials, but that they shouldn’t be living in the lap of luxury when millions of people in the very countries they have terrorized are living in far more devastating poverty and suffering from horrible prison conditions.
It’s a shame that perpetrators of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity can play foosball, watch television, browse the internet whenever they prefer, and even enjoy conjugal visits with their wives — but that an individual who steals a piece of bread in the DRC might just die alone in prison of tuberculosis.
Where is the justice in this?
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