Conference Discussions Stirring Thoughts Already
By STEVEN M. SWEENEY
CHAUTAUQUA — Jamestown’s Robert H. Jackson Center, together with SUNY Fredonia and Chautauqua Institution are hosting the region’s first international law symposium starting Tuesday, but discussions about the theories and realities of international justice are already surfacing.
Former American prosecutor, Robert Donihi and the Institute of International Criminal Law’s director, Farhad Malekian answered questions about law and justice before an audience of about 20 Chautauquans, Bowling Green University students and area residents at the Institution’s Hultquist Center on Sunday.
‘‘International law is based around international treaties, but also many different sources,’’ said the Uppsala, Sweden-based Malekian.
Legal sources include treaties between nations, customs, written opinions and another theory dependent upon mutual understanding Malekian called ‘‘Ins Cogene.’’
He feels the last is most important.
‘‘It is the most simple ... aspect of international law. It exists regardless of a signature or ratification,’’ he said.
And that bothers Donihi.
The former lead prosecutor at the Tokyo war crimes trials at World War II’s end prefers legislatures and the power they have to keep foreign influences out of the nation’s laws and policies.
‘‘Some people don’t like it ... but no matter what dunces you put up there, I view (the U.S. Congress) as guardians of our freedoms and liberties,’’ Donihi said. He dislikes Malekian’s ideal international tribunal — the International Criminal Court in the Hague. He would rather see criminals prosecuted where they committed crimes by their victims’ laws.
‘‘I feel here the old saw still applies: if it’s working, don’t fix it,’’ Donihi said.
Audience members then asked the two to compare other international trials in such places as Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Nuremberg and Sierra Leone.
They said some have been successful — like Rwanda and Sierra Leone where a form of justice and punishment has been meted out quickly. The trial of former Yugoslav President Slovodan Milosevic, meanwhile has taken at least five years and gotten nowhere.
‘‘The problem, when they established the tribunal, is there was no written protection for witnesses,’’ Malekian said. ‘‘Milosevic, abuses them (judges and witnesses) to their faces. That still is a problem for people coming forward to testify.’’
And the Swedish director forsees Saddam Hussein being a problem in the near future — when the once feared dictator faces his former subjectsturned- accusers. No one knows how the Iraqi judges and prosecutors will be able to handle it.
‘‘Saddam Hussein is very familiar to bullying people,’’ he said.
Malekina believes the United States will someday join the ICC, but not any time soon, even though he sees changes in the wind. The United States has already signed a treaty banning genocide — once thought impossible.
And if the U.S. followed through and joined international courts today, Malekian said the world would see farreaching effects — but what, he cannot say.
‘‘At least it would have a political effect,’’ he said. ‘‘It means, psychologically, the U.S. is behind it, the U.S. would protect it.’’
Then he said, the world’s nations would get to a point where ‘‘we respect all nations and have a full application of the principles of equality.’’