3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Overly detailed but important, August 24, 2010
This review is from: Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity's Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity (Hardcover)
After reading "Madame Prosecutor" I am more convinced than ever that the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague, run by the United Nations and for which Carla Del Ponte was the chief prosecutor for crimes against humanity committed in Rawanda and Yugoslavia, is not the best way or even a very good way to go after war criminals.
The problem is certainly not with Del Ponte--she was a dogged worker, good manager and dedicated prosecutor. She does not come across as a person one would want as a friend but as someone to bring end the culture of impunity enjoyed by mass murderers. I doubt if a anyone could do better given the built-in constraints of the system.
Del Ponte was both ambitious, wanting success for its own sake and to continue her career but also fervent in her desire to get the people ultimately guilty for some of the worst crimes since the end of World War II. She is able to ignore the details of slaughter and refuses to prosecute the low level soldiers and police officers guilty of murder. She wants the monsters who initiated the reign of terror against helpless civilians in central Africa and Southeast Europe.
The biggest problem she faced is the willingness of the United States, France, the United Kingdom and other nations who have tried to seize the moral high ground recently to value diplomacy over justice. Another difficulty is the bureacracy of the UN itself. There are plenty of other reasons why the going has been slow and few of the guilty have been tried.
Spain showed the way when a court there indicted Augusto Pinochet for crimes committed during his term as dictator in Chile. Using the doctorine of universal jurisdiction--that some acts are so egregious that they constitute crimes against humanity and can therefore be prosecuted in any court in the world, they ruled that he was not immune to prosecution in Spain even though he had given amnesty in Chile.
Del Ponte worked for eight years to convict Balkan war lords and military leaders in the International Court of Justice at the Hague. The theme that runs throughtout the book is the constant tension between the need for justice and diplomatic expeniency. While most of Del Ponte's targets were brought to trial, several were found not guilty (or the charges found "not proven" on, in some cases, what later was found to be doctored evidence. The hundreds of years of warfare among Serbs, Croats, Albanians and Macedonians and among Roman Catholics, Orthodox Catholics and Muslims was continued with astonishing and brutality during break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the power and land grabs that followed it.
There is a lot of information--too much--on the bureaucratic battles Del Ponte had to fight. While it is important to understand how the ICJ itself, which seems more committed more to legalism, establishing its authority and creating precedent and procedure than to bringing war criminals to justice, the amount of detail and the meeting by meeting accounts of her frustration becomes frustrating reading.
She was, however, totally committed to her task. Del Ponte was one of the few figures who unifed southeastern Europe--everyone there hated her. She was addressed in official, for the record memos from Croatian political leaders as "Dear Madame Whore". She was villified in the press throughout the area and ignored by her targets whenever they could. Far from detering her, these attacks simply showed her that she was doing the right thing and going after the right people.
I would hate to have her after me. She is an indefatigable pursuer, a constant thorn in the side of slow moving officials and a dedicated, creative prosecutor. The end of the book is downbeat but not surprising--she had an arbitrary deadline and many of her targets knew that if they avoided her until her appointment expired they would be safe. By her standards she failed--the final words are "the simple fact of failure is the simple fact of failure" but it was a noble and necessary effort.
"Madame Prosecutor" is slow going at times--Del Ponte recounts some of her battles to have Serbian, Albanian and Croatian war ciminals arrested almost memo by memo and airport by airport--but it is generally well written and very timely.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
PERFECT FOR CLASSROOM STUDY, April 9, 2010
This review is from: Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity's Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity (Hardcover)
This book gets burdened by too many statistics, which is great for that class credit that you need for graduatation. But for the average reader, it can overwhelm & boggle the mind. In between all the statistics, the numbers & the basis of where she retrieved the fact finding, you catch just a brief glimpse of personal stories that are heart wrenching (war crimes committed, genocide, abuse of women, etc.). She definitely did her research as this is a very informative source for this topic. I would have wanted to know that the stories by individuals are sprinkled sparsely throughout all of the statistics. So one really has to digest quite of bit of overwhelming information on many pages, before hitting a kernal of a personal story, which is why I purchased the book initially (for the personal stories). Once again, great for your classroom work and thesis, bad for the average reader.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceeds memoir expectations, July 17, 2009
This review is from: Madame Prosecutor: Confrontations with Humanity's Worst Criminals and the Culture of Impunity (Hardcover)
Today's news report explains the gist of this book the best.
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Serbia fully committed to cooperation with ICTY
President of the National Council for Cooperation with the ICTY Rasim Ljajic met today with ICTY President Patrick Robinson. This is Robinson's first official visit to Belgrade.
According to a statement issued by the National Council, Ljajic informed Robinson about Serbia's efforts and commitment in cooperating with the tribunal.
Ljajic also told Robinson about current activities for apprehending the remaining two Hague indictees, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.
Robinson said that he is aware of the changes in Serbia's overall political climate and of the commitment of the Serbian authorities to fully cooperate with the tribunal, adding that he thinks that this is extremely important for confronting the past, for reconciliation to take place in the region and for strengthening the rule of law.
Serbia's initiative to create conditions for Hague indictees found guilty to serve their prison terms in their respective countries was also discussed at the meeting.
Robinson stressed that the ICTY has received several such demands from Slovenia and Croatia, adding that this is the right moment to consider the issue and it is possible that the Security Council will make a final decision regarding this matter within the foreseeable future.
The issue of providing medical aid to indictees in detention was also discussed. It was stated that Serbian doctors should be more involved in this process.
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Carla Del Ponte goes into juicy and fascinating -- in a terrifying sense -- detail to expose the pretense from the above news clipping. You'll get a behind the scenes look into the dirty world of international politics that shows that law and justice are not that close together. She lifts the vail off some of the key players from the past years which gives us a lot of insight into today's key players (e.g. Rasim Ljajic and Patrick Robinson in the news clipping). I agree with the previous reviewer that it reads like a thriller rather than a memoir. Was there a lot of details that could bore some readers? Yes. I think the details are what make this book so interesting and at times frustrating. You'll feel her frustration as she fights to bring justice and some sort of piece of mind to the victims' families from Rwandan and Srebrenica genocides. Whether reading about the war crimes in Rwanda or former Yugoslavia you'll see that the overall picture is the same with the exception of maybe geography.
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