Osama Bin Laden is Dead!!!

[parsifal]

Dont know what the gaol conditions are like. Thats the first article I have seen on the issue

 

[michaelmaltby]

A secular 21st Century monastery .... sounds like.

Latest news suggests that the Serb general Mladic was treated for cancer in Serbia two years ago - and that he 'surrendered' (not caught) in order to receive better cancer treatment in the Hague.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/79759...mladic-give-himself-up-for-better-cancer-care

So - Elba and Saint Helena weren't inappropriate analogies .

MM

 

[parsifal]

I agree that Elba was an unsatisfactory solution for Nappy, for the simple reason that escape was far too easy and some thousands of lives had to be lost to bring him to ground....again. However, I saw a doco some months ago about St Helena, and whilst it was not medieval in its treatmen t of him (no racks, no thumbsrews I am afraid) it was not a picnic either. He was subjected to an almost total quarantine from the outside and limited in his contact with his gaolers. For someone who had aspired to be ruler of all Europe it was torture enough. And his broken power was maintained by this incarceration. Perhaps not retribution, but effective containment.

I dont know enough about Napoleon to say what might have happened if they had hanged him, but I daresay that the possibility of retribution was at least plausible. There were many in Eurpoe who saw him as messianic, and to kill him may well have elevated him to martyrdom.

In any event the gaol at the Hague is more like St Helena than Elba. As far as I am aware, no one has escaped from the Hague. Anbd once in custody, the last thing that would be wanted is to victimise them so that they garner even more support and sympathy, leading to further bloodshed. Remember, that many of its inmates are referred to the ICC because of a fear of further instability and warfare at home....the last thing thes nations want is to inflame the home situation by mistreating some of these people. Its a compromise, and like all compromises, it cannot satisfy all the expectations of everyone. By removing them from their societies, proving their guilt, and locking them away humanely, they at least are denied their liberty and robbed of their opportunity to fulfil what they see as their "destiny"

I am very skeptical about Mladic giving himself up voluntarily to receive treatment. I will concede that the Serbs, like the Pakistanis with OBL, had known for sometime about the whereabouts of their respective fugitives. But in each case, the political ramifications of their arrests were too great for them to risk. In the case of Mladic, his political support was waning, and finacial aid to the Serb administration was being witheld until until he was arrested....a sort of national bounty on his head if you like. As Mladic's influence waned, the Serbs were finally brought round to the opinion that they could risk his arrest. Thats my understanding of how it went down. Mladic did not resist, but he also did not put his hand up and say "come and arrest me now". certainly at the moment he is fighting tooth and nail to argue against extradition to the Hague through the Serbian courts. Dont know the basis of his appeal.