War-Crime Defendants Enjoy a Gentle Touch

0 Comments | Insight on the News, July 3, 2000 | by Betsy Pisik

The U.N. detention center in Scheveningen, near The Hague, holds those accused of committing atrocities in the Balkans and Rwanda, who await trial in rather cushy circumstances.

As hotels go, this one isn't so bad. Each room has a single bed, private bath, built-in shelves and a coffee pot. The window gets plenty of light and some rooms have a view of the sea. There's cable TV, of course.

These 48 nearly identical rooms are not inside a beach resort. They're in a U.N. detention center in Scheveningen, near The Hague, reserved for those accused of some of the most vicious crimes in human history.

Scheveningen is one of two holding centers built by the United Nations in response to world outrage over atrocities committed in the Balkans and Rwanda. The residents, all indicted war criminals, are held in the facilities (sometimes for years) while awaiting trial before the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.

The weight room at the Scheveningen facility is well-equipped, and there's an outdoor jogging track. A large common area is spacious enough for family gatherings and features a well-appointed kitchen, card tables and reading areas. There's a medical wing, where guests may see specialists, receive emotional counseling and enjoy a customized physical-therapy regimen. Inmates wear their own clothes and visit privately with their wives. Most of the inmates have laptop computers, but Internet access is forbidden.

Tim McFadden, a genial Irishman who formerly ran a prison in Northern Ireland, bristles when asked if Scheveningen isn't a little too nice. "Innocent until proven guilty," he says. "We must put in place conditions that resemble normal life as much as possible, while at the same time forbidding them to go home at night. My job is to make these men as comfortable as possible." Adds McFadden, "These detainees have held high office in public life, very high up, with many privileges attached and they are experiencing the denial of freedom at a later time in life. Many of them feel that what they were doing, or said they were doing, was central to their doing their duty."

The facilities at Scheveningen are subject to U.N. rules and are paid for by U.N. member states. U.N. officials could not provide an estimate of the cost to operate the Dutch facility. But using available figures for 1999 -- $227 per night, or $82,800 annually per cell, multiplied by 50 cells -- yields a figure of more than $3 million. The other holding center, in Arusha, Tanzania, costs less than half as much -- $98 per day, or $35,700 annually per cell -- because costs such as utilities and salaries are much less in Tanzania, according to Rwandan tribunal spokesman Tom Kennedy.

The United Nations never set out to get a piece of the corrections industry. But when the organization created its landmark war-crimes tribunals in 1993 for the Balkans and in 1994 for Rwanda, it needed a secure place to house the accused during the lengthy trial process. Since then, the United Nations also has found itself operating prisons for garden-variety thieves and murderers in Kosovo and East Timor, both places where the world body has assumed transitional authority.