004 ~ Learning from History

A soon-to-be anointed member of the PNP's international peacekeeping contingent recently released one of his jailed charges on account of lack of evidence.

The suspect, taken in for an acts-of-lasciviousness complaint, was surprisingly saddened at his liberty for the basic reason called sustenance. Unlike at home, he never went hungry at the station. A few days later, the man would commit a petty crime to earn his "meal ticket" back in the can.

The police officer, at relating the anecdote to friends, was then told of a similar incident that transpired in East Timor. A jailbreak had occurred in what was yet a turbulent Indonesian province.

From the Becora Prison's Civilian Detention Center, where a Filipino UN CivPol was assigned, 14 inmates bolted to their unwarranted freedom. Half the number did not consummate the dash and were returned behind bars, once extricated from the perimeter barbed wire. The other half were later accounted for, after being tracked down by the local and multinational patrols or, as predicted, upon surrender. The free will, coming from either the detainees themselves or their close kin, was for one mouth less to feed at the spare family kitchen.

Lessons drawn from the above-narrated cases probably explain better-quality reform procedures. It might have been rethinking corrections by touching the nucleus of the human spirit, even if it was done through the stomach.

Minds are now curious if high-profile malefactors would do the same, given an opportunity to walk out of the squalid cell, toward where there is a whole lot more in store for them.*

These are mostly the ones being tried for war crimes, once charged with endless power and now charged heavily for mass destruction and mass murder. They are former heads of state, army generals, political bigwigs, and ministers of the disarrayed nations. They have interests in country, people, economy, luxury, and gourmet food ---all of which make strong rationalizations on evading justice.

Just the same, however momentarily, they can find good within themselves and soften up the lines on their malfeasance-hardened faces, whenever accorded civility.

Several Filipino UN Blue Berets who worked in the Kosovo mission's prisoner escort unit have experienced their wards' reciprocation of kindness. Although escort elements are restricted from communicating with prisoners while being transited to court hearings, they still receive gestures of sincere appreciation for the gentleness in handling handcuffed affairs.

It goes to show that abuse of authority or maltreatment of even society's least wanted does not ease up a tense situation. It will not reverse the damage, big or small, that the lawless had been responsible for inflicting. Most definitely, it will not bring back to life the corpses that they might have maimed, took the life out of, and buried without reverence.


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* Later reports show that Liberian ex-president Charles Taylor enjoys a satellite dish and DVD player in his cell while facing charges of crimes against humanity. He is widely believed to have terrorized the civilian population with his countless acts of murder, physical violence, rape and sexual slavery, forced labor, looting, and the employment of child-soldiers under 15 years old.

- Newsweek, 15 October 2007, page 5;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6707551.stm.