Their Day in Court nytimes.com
[ on the "tribunal" issue, there was this article in yesterday's paper. Having exceeded the daily quota already, I restrict myself to a relatively brief excerpt: ]
There is no one obvious pattern that war-crimes prosecution of Iraqis would necessarily follow. The best-known recent war-crimes prosecutions — those that have dealt with atrocities in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia — were conducted under international oversight. This was a matter of principle, a belief that only international bodies could confer the kind of moral legitimacy that such trials — which are, after all, significantly about public display — require. But obviously this is not a view that the Bush administration, which has rejected the International Criminal Court and extricated itself from international agreements, shares. Washington is no more likely to leave the trials of Iraqi war criminals to the United Nations than it was to leave the war itself to it. Beyond the question of international justice, however, there are several practical considerations, in this as in all such prosecutions. How much money might this form of justice be worth to whoever's financing it? Is there still too much fighting going on to hold the trial in Iraq itself? How many educated lawyers could be rounded up among the citizenry? What form of justice would most persuade the victims to let the law, rather than civilian violence, punish the accused? Finally, for an administration that has made no secret of its belief in the justice and efficacy of the death penalty, there is one additional consideration: in which kind of court would the prosecutors most likely win not only convictions but also executions?
Among the probable targets for war-crimes prosecutions, Saddam and his two sons, Qusay and Uday, are the most familiar. But other high-ranking Iraqis are largely unknown to Americans. Whatever else they may accomplish, trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity would provide one of the first public glimpses at the dozens and dozens of men who have carried out Saddam's policies. It is certain to make for gruesome testimony, an accounting of crimes that sound like the darkest of comic-book conjurings: hospital-bed assassinations; murder and torture practiced with chilling, casual regularity; frequent mass executions; and prison purgings. |
