Justice is supposed to be blind. Taking that idea literally, though, may cost the chief United Nations war-crimes prosecutor, Ms. Carla Del Ponte, her job. Ms. Del Ponte is under attack by the Rwandan government for believing that her mandate is to prosecute all perpetrators of war crimes in that horrendous conflict -- winners and losers. Her audacity has earned her the enmity of the Rwanda government, and the U.N. Security Council appears ready to go along. Ms. Del Ponte deserves more support. History must not be written by the victors, and their crimes forgotten.
During the 1994 civil war in Rwanda, it is estimated that as many as 800,000 Rwandans lost their lives, the majority of them Tutsis, killed by members of the Hutu ethnic group. The Hutus were eventually overwhelmed by Tutsi groups that reclaimed control of the government and the country, but as many as 30,000 lives might have been lost as a result of reprisal killings.
Once order was restored in Rwanda, the U.N. established a war-crimes court to try to render some justice in the aftermath of the slaughter. Ms. Del Ponte was appointed to oversee the tribunal. That move made sense since Ms. Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney general, was also heading up prosecution in The Hague tribunal, which is hearing war-crimes trials for the former Yugoslavia.