Jean-Claude Duvalier also known as Baby Doc has been arrested and charged with embezzlement on his return to Haiti. Whether he will face trial remains to be seen but it is a sign of the man's arrogance that he dares to return to the country where his father and he ruled with torture and murder for over 50 years. Alberto Fujimori is serving a 25 year prison sentence in Peru for extra judicial killings and Charles Taylor is on trial at special court in the Hague. These are the exceptions. On the whole 99% of politicians escape justice for the crimes they commit because all the associates who have benefited from the crimes work hard to protect their former boss and politicians in other countries are ready to offer refuge in a crisis. Thus Ben Ali has found refuge in Saudi Arabia as did Idi Amin in the past. Pol Pot hid in China while Mengistu Haile Mariam is in Zimbabwe. Musharraf is living in luxury in London while the mass murderer, Tony Blair, whose unquestioning slavish support of George Bush resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands, is apparently trying to bring peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. Thus politicians feel free to loot, torture and kill knowing that some sympathetic brother will offer refuge where they can live out their lives that the looted billions will afford. This perceived immunity encourages beasts like Mugabe to eliminate any opposition and Laurent Gbagbo to threaten UN troops who are trying to protect Ouattara, the victor of last month's elections that Gbagbo refuses to recognise. Politics has become the ultimate refuge for the scoundrel. This is true all over the world.