The Role of the Great Powers behind Modern Human Rights Catastrophes...
Achmed Abdel-Rahim
The Role of the Great Powers behind Modern Human Rights
=======================================================
Catastrophes: Bosnia, Palestine, Chechnya, Kosova, Iraq, etc.
=============================================================
Francis Boyle, Ph.D.,
Professor of International Law,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
But what do we do about major human rights atrocities and catastrophes
that
undeniably do occur in the world today? Certainly, we do not give the
great
military powers of the world such as the United States, the NATO states,
Russia, and China a right of "humanitarian intervention" that they will
only
abuse and manipulate to justify military intervention against less
powerful
states and peoples for their own selfish interests. There are more than
enough international laws and international organizations to deal with
major
human rights atrocities and catastrophes going on around the world
today.
This is a political problem, not a legal problem. Indeed, behind most of
the
major human rights atrocities and catastrophes in the world today, we
have
seen the dirty and bloody hands of the Great Powers.
In this regard, I wanted to say just a few words about the genocide by
the
Milosevic regime against the People and the Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and the role that the Great Powers of Europe, the United
States, and the United Nations Organization played in aiding, abetting,
and
facilitating this modern human rights catastrophe -- the worst in Europe
since the genocidal horrors perpetrated by the Nazis over a generation
ago.
Pursuant to the self-styled Dayton Peace Agreement, on 14 December 1995
the
Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina -- a U.N. member state -- was
carved-up
de facto in Paris by the United Nations, the European Union and its
member
states, the United States, Russia and the many other states in
attendance,
despite the United Nations Charter, the Nuremberg Principles, the
Genocide
Convention, the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional
Protocols of 1977, the Racial Discrimination Convention, the Apartheid
Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as
two
overwhelmingly favorable protective Orders issued by the International
Court
of Justice on behalf of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 8
April
1993 and 13 September 1993. This second World Court Order effectively
prohibited such a partition of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the vote of 13 to
2.
This U.N.-sanctioned execution of a U.N. member state violated every
known
principle of international law and human rights that had been formulated
by
the international community in the post World War II era. The Republic
of
Bosnia and Herzegovina was sacrificed on the altar of Great Power
politics
to the Machiavellian god of expedience. In 1938 the Great Powers of
Europe
did the exact same thing to Czechoslovakia at Munich.
The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina stands for the proposition that
genocide pays. As then Bosnian Foreign Minister (later Prime Minister)
Haris
Silajdzic said in reference to the invitation of the genocidaire Radovan
Karadzic by the United Nations, the European Community, and the United
States to attend the 1993 Vance-Owen negotiations in New York: "If you
kill
one person, you're prosecuted. If you kill ten people, you're a
celebrity;
if you kill a quarter of a million people, you're invited to a peace
conference." Almost three years later at Dayton, Richard Holbrooke,
Warren
Christopher and Bill Clinton personally gave the genocidaire Slobodan
Milosevic 49% of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. And Serbia
today
still controls, dominates, and strangulates almost one-half of Bosnia
and
Herzegovina -- a U.N. member state.
I currently represent the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja living in
Vogosca, Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as the Women of Srebrenica, living
in
Tuzla, B-H. These are the two major organizations grouping the women and
children survivors of the greatest massacre in Europe since World War
II. In
July of 1995 approximately 10,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were taken
out
and systematically exterminated over just a few days at the U.N.
declared
"safe-haven" of Srebrenica by the Bosnian Serb Army acting at the behest
of
the Milosevic regime in Belgrade. The Great Powers of the world on the
Security Council, the European Union and the United Nations Organization
deliberately sacrificed Srebrenica and its inhabitants in order to
produce
the carve-up of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina that the United
States government then later orchestrated at Dayton and Paris.
Almost six years after the massacre, the Mothers of Srebrenica and
Podrinja
as well as the Women of Srebrenica cannot even go back to their homes in
Srebrenica because of dire fear for their lives. And the United States,
the
European States, the NATO states, and the United Nations Organization
could
not give a tinker's dam about the Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja and
the
Women of Srebrenica. On Wednesday October 4, 2000, I met with Ambassador
Jacques Klein, Head of the U.N. Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the
U.N.
Headquarters Compound in Sarajevo. Klein repeatedly insulted and berated
the
Mothers of Srebrenica and Podrinja to my face while their three
Presidents
sat down the hall patiently waiting for their scheduled appointment with
the
Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia, The Honorable Carla Del Ponte, successor to now Justice
Louise
Arbour.
After what happened to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina -- which
no
longer exists! -- it should come as no surprise that we saw outright
genocide inflicted by the Hutu government with the connivance of France
against the Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, while the Security Council stood
by
and did nothing despite the prophetic warnings by Canadian General Romeo
Dallaire. That we saw Russia inflict outright genocide against the
Chechens
from 1994 to 1996, and then again from 1999 until today
-- financed by the Western Powers, which have also acquiesced in
Russia's
gross violation of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty in order to
prosecute this genocidal war against my clients and friends, the Chechen
Republic of Ichkeria and its People. Recently, Russian President
Vladimir
Putin visited Canada. You can correct me if I am wrong, but from my
admittedly cursory examination of the news media, I saw no evidence that
the
Canadian government raised Chechnya with him.
After Bosnia-Herzegovina, it should come as no surprise that we saw
outright genocide inflicted by the Milosevic regime against the Kosovar
Albanian Muslims immediately after the United States and NATO launched
their
illegal war in March of 1999. Then we saw outright genocide inflicted by
Indonesia against the People of East Timor after decades of military and
economic support to the military dictatorship ruling Indonesia by the
United
States and Britain -- "our kind of guy," as the Clinton administration
publicly referred to the genocidaire Suharto. We have also seen the
United
States and Britain insist on the imposition of genocidal economic
sanctions
against the People of Iraq now for over a decade.
Just recently we have seen the United Nations Human Rights Commission
condemn Israel for inflicting a war crime and a crime against humanity
upon
the Palestinian People -- which criminal conduct has been financed,
armed,
equipped, supplied, and supported by the United States. The Nuremberg
crime
against humanity is the historical and legal precursor to genocide as
defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention. Finally, let us never forget
that
the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, the United States, and Latin America
have
been subjected to continuing acts of genocide for the past 500
years.Despite
the slogan "Never again," toward the end of the Twentieth Century,
genocide
has become an increasingly familiar and acceptable tool for powerful
states
to wield against weaker states and peoples.