War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity - Essay Example

194515 "It has never happened in history that a nation that has won a war has been held accountable for atrocities committed in preparing for and waging that war. We intend to make this one different. What took place was the use of technological material to destroy a defenseless country. From 125,000 to 300,000 people were killed... We recognize our role in history is to bring the transgressors to justice." Ramsey Clark War crimes are torture, rape, slavery, political, racial abuse, religious persecutions, extermination, killings and indignities heaped on the vanquished by the victor during the war. Turkish officials killing Armenians during the war, Germans committing atrocities on Jews, Polish people and others, cases that came up during Nuremburg trials, Russian treatment of German prisoners all came under war crimes. Crimes against humanity include genocide, mass murder, en mass slavery, mass executions, enslavement, deportation, extermination etc. This means any atrocious act committed on a large group could be termed as crimes against humanity. Sometimes these two overlap one another. Paul Touvier, Klaus Barbie, and Maurice Papon in France, and Imre Finta in Canada are a few examples. The origins of the war crimes must have started as soon as the war started and that was immediately after the Stone Age when people began grouping together and individuality ended. The groups fought against one another and heaped atrocities on the vanquished men and women. In recent centuries, after the advent of social Darwinism, people have understood the sufferings and harshness that the wars have imposed on Mankind. In Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, there are dictums against war and war crimes, especially so, in Buddhism and there are historical stories that inform us about the emperors who gave up the war path to avoid atrocities on ordinary soldiers and civilians. But in recent centuries once again, wars have been glorified and war crimes have taken place in many regions of all the continents. In first and second world wars, Japan, Russia, Germany, Italy like countries practiced war crimes. In later years, former Yugoslavia became another example of crimes against humanity. It is the duty of International law not only to punish war criminals, but also to prevent such happenings. "Essentially, international humanitarian law has a two-fold purpose. It is intended to protect non-combatants, or those who are not now or never were, taking part in the fighting. It also limits the methods and means by which the fighting is carried out," Chuter (2003, p.59). War crimes could be of many kinds. It should involve 'cataclysmic, direct acts of violence', there should be 'logical connection between these events and the discipline of criminology' Yacoubian (2006, p.5). War crimes and crimes against humanity are not limited to only governments and armies. "The framework is not restricted to crimes committed by governments. Criminal acts committed by individual members of society, or corporations therein, are also eligible for inclusion" (Ibid). Genocide, ill-treatment of prisoners of war, ill treating women including sexual assault, mass murder, torture all come under this category of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The main purpose of International Criminal Court is to try war crimes and crimes against humanity and punish the deserving war criminals. Violations of Geneva convention like wilful killing, inflicting serious injury, inhuman torture, or starvation, confinement, wanton destruction of property, forcing a prisoner of war to serve the opposite side, torturing him or denying him a proper trial come under war crimes. In addition, taking hostages and using them for ransom, direct and purposeful attacks on civilians, attacking, injuring or killing peace workers, NGOs, charity organisations and humanitarian organisations like Amnesty international or Red Cross, killing doctors who are on duty as doctors also fall under the jurisdiction of the said court. Killing a surrendered soldier is considered to be a heinous crime. Deporting prisoners or civilians, using poison weapons, using civilians, women, children as shields, using child soldiers etc. too could be counted under crimes against humanity. Racial discrimination and elimination like the way it was done during the second world war to starve, humiliate, torture and execute Jews, Gypsies and people branded as enemies of Nazi rulers, pillage, sexual slavery, forced pregnancies, forced prostitution etc. all come under crime against humanity and hence, come under the jurisdiction of International Criminal Court. War crimes never stop haunting the conscience of mankind. Nanjing massacre conducted by the Japanese is one such war crime that went unpunished. Lovas war crimes of 1991 are yet to be justified. Funnily, today US military stands accused of war crimes in Iraq and that too, with proof. War crime and accountability had been international issues of great vehemence and passion. It is natural that the sufferers or the family members or the regions of the victims want to see the people who were responsible for the inhuman suffering and deaths punished adequately and they need justice. "Retribution requital comprises notions of compensation for victims, punishment of aggressors, recompense for physical damage, delegitimization of responsible institutions, and reimposition of the rule of law" Williams (2002, p.14). War crimes have travelled a long way from Nuremburg to Balkans and even though the international tribunal had been relentless in its effectiveness to bring justice and fairness, it has not been always easy to collect evidences. Usually the victims are never there to tell the story and the perpetrator takes the trouble to destroy all the human and paper evidences while indulging in war crimes. The world still wonders if there is any hope of getting the last of the Nazi criminals and only days ago, a fresh effort, Operation Last Chance to find them has started all over again, saying that the advanced age is no excuse for the horrendous crimes that have been committed. "The last remaining major Nazi war criminals are Austrian-born Dr Aribert Heim, who is wanted for the murder of hundreds of Jewish prisoners at the Nazis' Mauthausen concentration camp where he worked as a doctor in 1941, and Alois Brunner, a close aide of the convicted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who invented a mobile gas chamber used on thousands of Jewish prisoners" and these two chief targets are still illusive, says The Independent, http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3204036.ece It is rather difficult to brutalise these old men of above 90, but the crimes they had committed when they were younger and powerful, are too heinous to be forgotten and hence, it cannot be called witch-hunting. Khmer Rouge leaders still face trials for one of the worst crimes against humanity in Cambodia under Pol Plot. Former Croatian general Ante Gotrovina is charged now of crimes against humanity and he had been avoiding arrest since 2000. The Zvornik war crime trial too continues. Still it is important to decide these trials as quickly as possible as the memories, evidences, witnesses, situations etc. all change eventually and tampering of evidences too take place. Recently there had been another report that one of the SS bigwigs, who was accused of war crimes, Soren Kam was spotted in Kemten, Germany. WAR CRIMES IN YUGOSLAVIA There are diverse opinions about the war crime in former Yugoslavia and many criminal cases went to the International tribunal. Sexual assaults, rapes, extra-judicial executions, torture, violation of human rights have been blamed on the rulers of former Yugoslavia. It is unfortunate that from peaceful days of Tito, the country had slipped into inglorious times resulting in many unpublished atrocities on its people. The Bosnian War, 1992-1995 came out in its most horrific form when innumerable mass graves were detected. The ethnic cleansing carried out went unnoticed for a long time. "In attempts to create 'ethnically pure areas,' hundreds of thousands of individuals were killed and an additional two million forcibly displaced. The human rights abuses associated with 'ethnic cleansing' - summary executions, forced displacement, expulsion, internment in detention camps or ghettos, physical harassment and destruction of property, were systematically perpetrated by Serbian forces in Croatia and Bosnia" Brown (1995, p.113). The tribunal for the war crime of former Yugoslavia extends the criminal responsibility to the leaders on the principle that they were aware of the genocide, covertly approved it, and did not take any steps to punish the perpetrators. On 28th of November 2007, Bosnia's war crime court jailed Jadranko Palija, who was found guilty of war crimes against humanity in the Balkan war for 28 years. The court arrived at the conclusion that he participated in the killing of captured civilians near Sanski. The trials go on, slowly; but they have created some kind of fear in the minds of the present and future perpetrators. This is not to say that they are frightened beyond reasoning and all the crimes have stopped. Definitely it is not so, and the crimes go on. It is only to say that there is a possibility of bringing the perpetrators to pay for the crimes committed by them, very often, if not always. International community plays a very important role in the war crime trials and in the case of Yugoslavia; it is mainly due to the effort of the international community that the war crime trials took shape eventually. Still one should not forget that these are the very powerful people, who still maintain powerful underground links, even though they are deprived of formal power and the witnesses naturally get intimidated by threats, kidnappings, and sometimes even get killed in the process. Kosovo Leader, Ramush Haradinaj's trial is reported to be blighted by scared witnesses. It is not easy to blame the witnesses because they hardly stand any chance against the supporters of these powerful criminals. CASE ONE: Slobodan Milosevic, President of Serbia and later of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia remains perhaps the most highly placed accused person of war crimes in the International Criminal Court. He was initially arrested by Serbian forces for corruption, although they could not muster much evidence against him. He was sent to The Hague to stand trial for alleged war crimes. He was accused of war crimes committed during Kosovo war, in which he was one of the key figures, and this became the basis of the trial in The Hague. He was also accused of crimes against humanity, genocide, violation of customs of war and Geneva Convention. Prosecution took two years to present evidence with very high profile witnesses with as much evidence as they could muster. Unfortunately he was not allowed to defend himself. Lord Owen stood by his side with equally strong evidence that the former president was not involved. But he died in prison, after accusing the Tribunal that he was not allowed proper medical treatment, which might be true to a very large extent. When he died only 50 hours of testimony was left and he was conducting his own defence. He was an opponent of disintegration of Yugoslavia and had taken harsh decisions to preserve its integrity. He also supported the claim of Serb population to live in Yugoslavia and many of his decisions were highly controversial and he became the first sitting head of the government to be accused of war crimes. CASE TWO: Another famous accused of the similar crime is Radovan Karadzic, a creative poet, psychiatrist, now a fugitive from the International Criminal Tribunal. He was the first President of Bosnian Serb administration and is accused of ordering ethnic cleansing of Muslim Bolsheviks, an accusation, which is hotly denied by him, his supporters and also some journalists and the general public. His whereabouts are unknown today and his involvement too remains largely un-evidenced. The world hears of occasional outburst of news when his mother tells him not to surrender, or when his wife implores that he should surrender. When the trial moves further, with more and more reliable evidences coming out from both the sides, it might be easier to understand his exact role in the ethnic cleansing. In his absence, he is charged with grave breaches of Geneva Convention, murder, plunder, war crimes and violations of customs of war. The evidences are not very clear. It is also important to get the correct evidence to prove the crime beyond even a modicum of doubt, because anybody could be accused of crimes against humanity by the opposition of the land. As he is yet to be caught, his case stands standstill for now. There are many instances where the fighting rebels accuse the governmental authority of war crimes, mostly without evidence. LTTE has used this against Srilankan Government and the world believed it for a long time, till the real killer face of LTTE emerged from the shadow, especially in the terrible assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. It is necessary to know what really has happened, because sometimes the people in power might not have been even informed of an incident that happened in some remote place and might not be responsible for it in any way. Hence, it is necessary for the International Criminal Tribunal not to get carried away by the claims of terrorism groups or by the opposition parties of the region. Accusing is the easiest thing in the world and the self-justification is the most difficult one. Assessment and a sincere one, is absolutely necessary before accusing a person, or declaring him a fugitive, because a hellish life of a wrongly accused person might defeat the very purpose for which the Court stands. At the same time, it is necessary to see that not a single criminal escapes the dragnet without getting punished. Goring, Ribbentrop, Hess, Kaltenrrunner, Rosenburg, Hans Frank, Streicher, Robert Lee all deserved their end. But the international law should see that it is never the vindictive judgement of the victor on the vanquished, which sometimes seems so. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Brown, Cynthia and Karim, Farhad (1995), Playing the Communal Card; Communal Violence and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, New York. 2. Chuter, David (2003), War Crimes; Confronting atrocity in the Modern World, Lynne Reinner, Boulder. 3. Yacoubian, George S., 'Genocide, Terrorism and the Conceptualization of Catastrophic Criminology', War Crimes, Genocide & Crimes against Humanity, vol. 2, 2006. 4. Willams, Paul and Scarf, Michael (2002), Peace with justice; War crimes and Accountability in the Former Yugoslavia, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham. ONLINE SOURCES 1. http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3204036.ece Read More