NYTimes Editorial: International Justice On Trial

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/opinion/10sun3.html

Editorial
International Justice on Trial

Published: June 10, 2007
The trial of Charles Taylor, former president of Liberia, is looking like the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, former leader of Yugoslavia, and that is too bad.

Mr. Taylor, the first African leader to be tried in an international court for crimes against humanity, refused to show up at the opening of his trial in The Hague. He fired his lawyer and dismissed the proceedings as a charade. Before that, his lawyer argued that his witnesses were afraid to testify, or could not testify because of United Nations bans on their travel. And so, most likely, it will continue, with Mr. Taylor, like Mr. Milosevic, trying to deflect attention from his crimes by casting doubts on the validity and efficacy of international justice.

That would be unfortunate. This was an extraordinarily vicious leader on a continent that still suffers terribly at the hands of men like him. His rebel army in Liberia recruited children and was responsible for unspeakable horrors during a 14-year civil war. Liberia, however, decided against a war crimes court and opted instead for a truth and reconciliation process. As a result, Mr. Taylor is not charged with the crimes he committed against his people, but those he abetted by supporting the equally inhuman and now deceased Foday Sankoh in Sierra Leone, whose forces were notorious for mass rapes, amputations and other horrors.

Mr. Taylor’s trial was transferred to The Hague for security reasons, but the move weakened one of the primary purposes of such tribunals, which is to show that no one is above justice enforced in the places where injustice occurred. So far, the record is not great. The Milosevic trial was long, costly and inconclusive. Saddam Hussein’s legally shoddy trial ended in an Internet circus of an execution. Washington is openly hostile to the International Criminal Court. International justice itself is on trial once again. We hope it wins.

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