The reputation of such courts is already straining. Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic’s self-defense in The Hague tribunal has turned the proceeding into a farce. In Arusha, Tanzania, the prosecution of Rwandans accused in the 1994 genocide has proved clumsy and subject to suspected lawyer-fee abuses. Having missed its mark last week, the Sierra Leone panel faces a mixed result at best because Taylor may never fall into its grasp. Washington, which is leaving prosecution in Iraq to local tribunals, remains hesitant to ratify the 1998 treaty establishing an International Criminal Court. Miscues like last week’s hardly advance the case.
