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Johan Leman, 27 January 2020

Sorry, but it really was predictable. Sooner or later, it had to happen: a court ruling and a fine.
The situation was untenable. You cannot allow children – who, incidentally, bear no
responsibility – to pay the price for the evil their parents have done, or may do in the future.
You don’t want their parents back. You want them to be tried elsewhere. That’s a justifiable
position.
The Kurdish camp guards won’t let the children leave without their parents, and that presents
a problem. So what must you do? Negotiate! Appeal to the relevant people, via whom you
have a chance of succeeding. Negotiate that the children be allowed to leave and that the
parents must stay. That takes time. Something like this isn’t resolved in six months. It can
take a year or two.
Has the Belgian government done this?
I remember cases in the 1990s that took four or five years of negotiations. You have to
remember that when you are confronted with particular problems – and particular parties on
the other side of the table.

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