Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Letters to the International Herald Tribune

An International Corruption Court

Like so many corrupt leaders in many other countries before him, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the strongman who ruled Tunisia for 23 years, underestimated popular outrage. Scores of people have died in the rebellion that ousted him, and the question now is whether a new regime will be less corrupt.

History shows that one corrupt regime is usually followed by another. This is so because corrupt countries are often given no chance to build up bureaucracies that can contain corruption. Hence, revolutions tend to be power struggles in which competing elites seek advantage, even though their motives might have been pure at the start.

A country like Tunisia would greatly benefit if there were an international tool that could fight corruption from outside a country. The world needs an international tribunal, like the International Criminal Court, that could make significant corruption an international crime, subject to prosecution.

The international court has made life difficult for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan. It would be good if something similar would befall the leaders of corrupt regimes the world over.

Peter Wismer, Vienna

A version of this article appears in print on   in The International Herald Tribune. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT