US and Japan may use the 'poor health' excuse to avoid problems in the Jenkins case

(Day Twenty-six of the Korean Ministry of of Information and Communications ban)

The US has decided not to press for Japan to hand over accused deserter Charles Robert Jenkins, at least for now. Jenkins is in Japan receiving medical treatment. The US has deferred asking Japan for him while he receives treatment. They sited health reasons:

`While we do expect to present a legal request for custody at the appropriate time, we won't be doing that right away because of his medical condition,' spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday in Washington, according to an e-mailed transcript. `We're considerate of the medical condition.'

I you think you've heard this before, you have. It was the same way Britain and Chile worked out a solution in the Pinochet case:

(British Foreign Secretary) Mr Straw made his decision (to release Pinochet) after re-examining a medical report filed on General Pinochet in January.

He said he believed the general was medically unfit to stand trial.

"I was driven to the conclusion that a trial of the charges against Senator Pinochet, however desirable, was simply no longer possible," Mr Straw told Parliament.

So, considering that Jenkins is an old guy, I'm sure they can always find enough wrong with him to keep him in Japan. But, with the US refusing to drop charges against him, he will not be able to go to the US. As Jenkins fades from the headlines, we can expect the American and Japanese governments to quietly work out an understanding. Basically, Jenkins will be on 'administrative exile' (I think I'll copy write that phrase).

BTW, here is some background on Jenkins.

Comments

[Karlo]

Do you really mean to compare Pinochet and Jenkins? The former is responsible for massive torture and murder and the latter left his military post for ideological reasons and became an English teacher. It seems to be that there is both a quantitative and qualitative difference between the two, anya?

[Scott-in-Japan]

Karlo - the comparison between the two is only to show high-profile, old-man-facing-the-gov't cases. Jenkins isn't a Pinochet. But Jenkins doesn't seem to be innocent, either.

Bottom-line: Jenkins is an old-man. And fighting with an old-man is a no-win situation. If you win, you beat up an old man - there is no pride in that. If you lose - you lost to an old-man and there is no pride in that, either.