NETHERLANDS: Welcome to the 'Hague Hilton' - a rare glimpse inside the U.N.'s detention centre for war criminals

Record ID: 495022

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: Welcome to the 'Hague Hilton' - a rare glimpse inside the U.N.'s detention centre for war criminals
  • Date: 29th September 2011
  • Summary: COURT OFFICIAL GIVING PRESENTATION TO THE VISITORS MORE OF PEOPLE LISTENING LAMINATED CARD WITH OATH ON IT BOARD WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF THOSE ACCUSED OF WAR CRIMES IN THE ITCY LOBBY HALL MAP OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA VISITOR TAKING PHOTO OF BOARD
  • Embargoed: 14th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Netherlands, Netherlands
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA8CHLG6O4SLOK1NTTZ2TB4TXGA
  • Story Text: Welcome to the "Hague Hilton" -- the end of the road for the former Yugoslavia's convicted and suspected war criminals.
    Housed in a sombre Dutch prison on the outskirts of the Hague, the international war crimes detention centre in Scheveningen is home to 40 or so accused by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
    Reuters was given unique access to record images in the facility last week, where the detainees live in remarkable harmony and some comfort as they await trial and sentencing. It was not possible to film the detainees themselves, but the access gives a rare insight into the conditions under which they live.
    Back home in the former Yugoslavia, views of the court, set up with the sole purpose of prosecuting crimes during the 1991-2000 ethnic conflicts, reflect the divide of a schizophrenic society.
    For the nationalists, who regard these people as heroes, this place is a dungeon, but for so many others it's a stopover on what they hope is the road to hell.
    The tribunal in July arrested its last wanted fugitive and is expected to wind up operations in 2014, after deciding the fates of inmates like former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic, nicknamed "the butcher of Bosnia", and his one-time political partner Radovan Karadzic.
    David Kennedy, Chief of the Detention Unit, says conditions under which the detainees are held, are good -- by the standards of a prison. A hotel, it is not, he says.
    "So although our cell accommodation is comfortable, it can hardly be called luxurious," he told Reuters.
    Those under detention at Schevningen are accused of leading armies and militias into battle against each other, fostering ethnic hate, spreading tension and killing thousands. But on the inside, relations between the detainees are good, Kennedy adds.
    "We currently hold people accused of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia. We have just under 40 detainees here. We have no real problems on the ethnic basis or religious basis at the level of being in the same unit they all get along well together," he said.
    There is a kitchen, showers and phone booths between the wings where detainees have their cells. Mobile phones are forbidden so war crimes suspects have to use calling cards (30 euros a month, courtesy of the UN) if they want to call home. No incoming calls are allowed, no Internet, just letters.
    Inside their cells, they can watch programmes from home on flat screen TVs, and books and papers are delivered regularly.
    The food here is prison food, but special orders are allowed including a weekly delivery from a Balkan shop.
    Cartoons of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and ex-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi snipped from the newspapers are stuck to the kitchen door.
    There are even parties. Birthdays and religious holidays are celebrated here, as they were under Tito's brotherhood and unity. Men who fought or allegedly exterminated on the basis of religion or ethnic group in the 1990s when they were free now sit down at the same table to celebrate each other's religious festivals.
    Even when they are competing on the football field they don't team up along ethnic lines, and Kennedy says there has not been a single incident of a national or religious nature in all these years.
    Detainees can spend a long time at the detention centre during trials that can last a year or more and an exhaustive appeals process.
    But once their sentences are confirmed, they are moved as convicted prisoners to jails in other countries where they will serve out their time.
    The United Nations court that originally convicted them was the first war crimes tribunal to be set up since the Nuremberg court tried the Nazi leadership in the years after World War Two.
    "I have no doubt that the tribunal made a very important contribution in making sure that those who are responsible for the worst crimes committed in the countries of former Yugoslavia are prosecuted. And, by doing so, to have also an impact on reconciliation," said the court's Chief Prosecutor, Serge Brammertz.
    Since the tribunal was set up in 1993, more than 160 people have faced charges in its courts and 40 are at various stages of the trial process.
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