Practical Critiques Come Out On Symposium’s Second Day
By STEVEN M. SWEENEY
CHAUTAUQUA — Blended with stirring remembrances of the Nuremberg trials 60 years ago at the region’s first international criminal law symposium are practical reminders of how much remains unspoken.
Topics at the wide-ranging discussion sessions shifted Wednesday as scheduled speakers added critiques and concerns to their overall praise for a growing body of international criminal law — starting with Africa.
‘‘(Was a tribunal) what one of the poorest countries in the world needed?’’ said Wanda Akin of Seton Hall University. ‘‘Or was this just chasing after the Nuremberg legacy?’’
She flatly told a small audience at Chautauqua Institution’s Presbyterian House on Wednesday that international criminal courts and tribunals deal in justice only when defendants and their attorneys get the needed resources and funds at least funds equal to the prosecutors’.
Her case in point is Sierra Leone.
‘‘There really weren’t even roads but they had Range Rovers for all the judges and prosecutors,’’ said Ms. Akin, former defense counsel for one of the Sierra Leonians accused.
‘‘Between all of us (defense attorneys) we had one to share.’’
She invoked the sentiments of Justice Robert Jackson’s opening statements in Nuremberg on fairness toward the accused — lest accusers be thought guilty of vengeance.
‘‘International tribunals are easily discredited for lack of attention to what some states consider small matters,’’ she said. ‘‘When we create these trials, it’s fine that we do it. If we undertake that, we have to support it — and financially as well.’’
Symposium sessions Wednesday also teased participants’ interest in truth and reconciliation commissions spreading through Africa. The concept of forgiving lesser criminals with penance seems to be en vogue as numbers of war criminals on the continent ratchet into the hundreds of thousands. The commissions today are variations on ones started in South Africa after the fall of Apartheid in the early 1990s.
‘‘Do we prosecute everyone or do we prosecute the ones who sustained, supported and prolonged the war?’’ said David Crane, former chief prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, speaking of the problems he faced trying a handful of individuals. ‘‘If those are the people you seek, they number about 20 — just like in Nuremberg. If you want those most responsible, the number jumps to 300 and would take 20 to 30 years to prosecute. If you want those responsible — the number is 35,000.’’
Crane supports the commissions as an outlet for Africans to tell their stories of heartache. Throughout Sierra Leone, the heartbroken and hopeless tried to tell him their personal stories, but he guaranteed little more than a few minutes for each.
‘‘I urged them to support the TRCs and they did by the tens of thousands,’’ Crane said, noting Sierra Leone is the only example of a country where both a criminal trial and a TRC operate in concert. ‘‘The truth is — you have to have truth as well as justice.’’
Conference participants also heard a great deal about the aftermath of the War on Terror in Iraq from the lips of Lt. Col. Michael Newton. He has been instrumental in instructing Iraqi judges who will comprise the Iraqi Special Tribunal in the fine points of international criminal law and recent decisions.
He gave the audience perspectives on the new tribunal they might not receive from any other source.
‘‘All of these judges have a clear vision of the future. One of them asked me, ’Will people read our opinions in 50 or 60 years like we read the Nuremberg opinions?’ ’’ Newton recalled. ‘‘You bet they will and that’s why we’ve got to get it right. These cases will be studied in excruciating detail.’’
To explain the temperament of these highly-trained Iraqi lawyers, Newton described how a classroom full of stalwart, middle-age judges erupted in joy the day U.S. forces captured former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
‘‘One of them came up and hugged me. He said, ’today is day one.’ He meant this is the first day of a new Iraq to be rebuilt on the law,’’ Newton said. ‘‘They’re not just talking. They’re willing to put their lives on the line and their families in danger.
‘‘For them, justice is not an abstract concept, it’s really palpable and it makes a difference in people’s lives.’’
The International Law Symposium wraps up today with a presentation from Eric Posner, of the University of Chicago Law School speaking on The Limits of International Law at 9 a.m. He will be followed by a discussion at 10 a.m. on Alternatives to Trial, including truth commissions with Clifford Bob of Duquesne University; Lyn Graybill, of the Georgia Institute of Technology; Alberto Costi, of the Faculty of Law at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand; and Aaron Fichtelberg of the University of Delaware. Closing remarks follow at 11:45 a.m.