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OUR VIEW OF WORLD ISN'T ONLY RIGHT



Subject: OUR VIEW OF WORLD ISN'T ONLY RIGHT ONE 

News and View
Source:The Mirror
OUR VIEW OF WORLD ISN'T ONLY RIGHT ONE 
HOME Secretary Jack Straw is to be congratulated on his brave decision to
compel Augusto Pinochet to stand trial for extradition. 

The former Chilean dictator will now have to face justice - something he
never allowed his opponents. They were tortured and murdered without any
recourse to law - the law that is now catching up with the aged villain. 

But before we throw our hats in the air, perhaps we should think about the
issues that arise from this step. 

The decision to allow the British courts to determine whether Pinochet
should be extradited to stand trial in Spain for human rights abuses sets a
remarkable precedent. 

In future, brutal despots will think twice before they venture out of their
country, in case they are arrested and put on trial for their crimes. 

Had he lived, it would have been good to see President Marcos of the
Philippines in the dock for the sins of his regime. 

The same goes for crazed dictator Idi Amin of Uganda, currently hiding in
the Middle East, and Saddam Hussein and whoever is running the government of
Burma. 

Misery 

There is no doubt about their guilt. But who would we put on trial in the
ethnic conflict that has been tearing Sri Lanka apart for more than a
decade? And in Rwanda, where a million people died. And in Guatemala, where
the state-sponsored death squads wreaked such havoc and misery. 

The list is endless. Is Fidel Castro a criminal or a hero? Was Menachem
Begin, Premier of Israel, a terrorist or a freedom fighter? 

To the Yugoslavs, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are war criminals along with
the rest of the Nato leadership. Yet we accuse Slobodan Milosevic and his
generals of the same crimes. 

Famously, history is written by the victors. That's why we put top Nazis on
trial in Nuremberg after World War Two. Had the Germans won, no doubt they
would have hanged Winston Churchill. 

So you see, this is a political and moral quagmire. And Nato and the western
nations do not have a monopoly of wisdom on who is guilty and who is
innocent. 

The new international war crimes tribunal is a step in the right direction,
but we should not fool ourselves that our view of the world is the only
correct one. 

Otherwise it would be a mockery of justice.