Human rights and the enemy, an old dilemma
When the British captured Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo there was the issue of what to do with this spectacular prisoner. We tend to think relatively benignly of Napoleon now, but amongst Lord Liverpool’s government there was little affection for this defeated enemy.
Napoleon was responsible for the slaughter of millions, for a debt in the hundreds of millions and for behaviour that at the time was considered beyond the pale – those who have read the first few pages of War and Peace may recall the characters discussing the scandal of the murder of the Duc D’Enghien. Perhaps not the Hitler of his day, he was certainly the Kaiser Wilhelm.
The government was determined on one thing - not to bring him to Britain. The reason was simple – the Whig opposition would have issued a writ of habeas corpus and put him on the West London party circuit. Imagine Saddam Hussein at the 2004 Oscars.
In the end of course the little fellow was packed off to his comfortable one man Guantanamo Bay on the island of St Helena. Creditably, it never seems to have occurred to the government to simply hand him back to the French royalists, who were quite likely to have killed him as they did Marshals such as Ney.
And so the same problem has returned, in the form alleged Al Qaeda leader Abu Qatada, whom it seems Britain is stuck with. It seems that we can learn a lot from the statesmanship of Lord Liverpool.
Firstly – know your own laws and enforce them properly. The government was very careful to keep Napoleon out of Britain in 1815. It seems that the hapless immigration service should never have allowed Abu Qatada into Britain.
Secondly – there is no need to sacrifice important principles. However much the government hated Napoleon, it seems they never considered turning him over to a probably unpleasant fate.
Thirdly – find a solution. St Helena was a legal fudge, but no-one ever objects to it as inhumane treatment these days. It was a proportionate punishment for Napoleon’s crimes.
The island is, as far as the outside world can tell, still there. I doubt anyone wants another Guantanamo, but I am sure there are people who might prefer exile in the South Atlantic to torture and death in the dungeons of the Middle East.