The value of historical justice

ENOR

Steven Rambam, a New-York-based private investigator, would like to know what it takes to get Canada to prosecute war criminals. Already frustrated that Canada has done nothing in the case of suspected war criminal Juozas Kisielaitis, an 81-year-old Lithuanian native and Montreal resident who allegedly participated in several massacres in the former Soviet Union, mostly of Jews, Rambam became even more incensed at federal inaction after Kisielaitis was refused entry to the U.S. last week because he is on an American border control watch list. Kisielaitis fled the States in 1985, one step ahead of federal war crimes prosecutors. He now has Canadian citizenship.

The Canadian government, Rambam says, knows full well Kisielaitis is a war criminal because he personally amassed enough evidence to prosecute him, and forwarded it to Canadian authorities.

“I met with a Canadian Justice official and he told me it’s not enough for the government to prosecute Kisielaitis and win, but that they have to believe that prosecuting the case would bring some value to the Canadian government,” he says.

Rambam doesn’t believe in statute of limitations on war crimes. “As long as war criminals are breathing,” he says, “Canada has an obligation to prosecute him. If they won’t, they should just come out and say they’re not going to prosecute any more war criminals.” Justice Canada told the Mirror that they cannot comment on any investigations before or if they go to court. More information on Kisielaitis is available at http://kisielaitis.tripod.com. :

—Patrick Lejtenyi