World of opinion
On Desmond Tutu retiring from public life: Having served both his country and the world for several decades, Desmond Tutu announced July 22 he will retire from public life in October, the month in which he turns 79. “Instead of growing old gracefully, at home with my family – reading and writing and praying and thinking – too much of my time has been spent at airports and in hotels,” Tutu said.
The first black Anglican archbishop in South Africa, Tutu courageously fought against the powerful forces of apartheid, and just as bravely opposed the violent resistance of South African blacks to the racist system that oppressed them. …
Tutu’s contribution to South Africa’s transition from apartheid to multi-racial democracy included presiding over the truth and reconciliation commission. One of the most memorable images in South Africa’s recent history is of Tutu weeping along with a victim of state torture as he told of his suffering.
Tutu, who retired as archbishop of Cape Town in 1996, will continue his work as one of the Elders, a group of retired world leaders such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who promote peace in some of the most troubled places on Earth.
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, Tutu will be missed as he pulls back from daily interventions. When South Africans hesitated to criticize Thabo Mbeki over his denial of the scourge of AIDS, Tutu publicly denounced the former president. More recently, Tutu has also criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for cutting back on the funding he promised Africa in its fight against AIDS. …
Tutu was asked recently by the Times Live, the Johannesburg-based newspaper, what he wanted for South Africa. He replied: “I will go to my grave happily when I see us become what we have it in us to become: caring, compassionate, gentle, sharing.” That is a worthy goal – for any country.
The Gazette, Montreal
On a Khmer Rouge official’s sentence:
The reputation of international criminal justice got hammered again when the UN-backed tribunal set up to prosecute Khmer Rouge officials charged with the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 passed a light sentence on a notorious Khmer Rouge prime jailer and torturer.
Kaing Guek Eav, alias “Duch”, was convicted of overseeing the torture and death of over 16,000 of his fellow citizens at the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but will serve only 19, because of the time he already served in custody.
The sentence means that he will be effectively serving two days for every person who died under his watch, and this seems like a travesty of international justice.
The lenient punishment meted out to Kaing, a day of infamy in the administration of justice, outraged thousands of the families of victims and shocked observers outside the country.
The Tribunal for International Crimes in Cambodia is 10 years and $100 million in the making; after all these expenses and assumed experience, all it could come up with is the scandalously light sentence against a main culprit in the reign of terror and death in Cambodia, responsible for the killing of one fourth of the population?
With such a mindset, international justice can never recover from the low esteem it seems to be held in, and will no doubt give added ammunition to those who hold international tribunals in contempt. …
The Jordan Times, Amman, Jordan
On leaked U.S. military records on Afghanistan:
The massive leak of U.S. military records relating to the war in Afghanistan is a significant embarrassment to the Pentagon. It gives a new level of detail in understanding the difficulties faced by Allied forces. But the real casualty of the 90,000 leaked logs is more likely to be political: it must cast serious doubt on David Cameron’s assertion that the war can be won in time to start a British withdrawal in 2014.
The files show that there have been many more civilian casualties than previously admitted. Thousands of military reports demonstrate the Taliban to be both more broadly based and more formidable than is often assumed. The U.S. has resorted to using special forces teams to capture or kill Taliban leaders, while the Taliban have access to heat-seeking missiles. The leaks also show the firm conviction among U.S. military intelligence that Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service is helping to arm, train and finance the Taliban.
All of this might contradict the official U.S. line – but most of it was already assumed by many commentators. What is new is the far greater detail than before, showing just how intractable are the challenges that Allied forces face. The reports go up to December 2009, but while the White House may claim that the strategy has changed since then, the fundamental problems of the Taliban’s resilience and its outside help remain unchanged. That makes the recent shift in British policy – with the Prime Minister claiming that some forces could even be withdrawn from next year, prior to a pullout in 2014 – look like wishful thinking indeed.
London Evening Standard