What
To Do With The War Criminals Of The Myanmar’s SPDC Regime
By Habib Siddiqui
16 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org
The
important matter concerning what to do with the war criminals that victimize
civilian population has been hotly debated for the last few years, especially
after the invasion of Iraq by the USA and the UK. Many human rights
activists are on the opinion that the warlords of our world need to
be tried for their crimes against humanity. A few years ago, therefore,
there were cases filed in the European courts against some war criminals,
including Ariel Sharon of Israel for the massacre of Palestinians in
Jenin, Palestine. Fearing their imminent arrest if they had stepped
onto European soil, some of the Israeli generals did not land and returned
to Israel.
Even the US Secretary of
Defense Don Rumsfeld was sued a couple of years ago in Germany on similar
charges, including crimes at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay Prisons, etc.
The US (unilateral) law, however, exempts trying government officials
and its armed forces from being tried outside or extradited for war
crimes in courts like The Hague. Interestingly, among western countries,
the USA is the only country that has not accepted the jurisdiction of
the ICJ in The Hague to try its own war criminals, although, rather
hypocritically she has no problem having other monsters like the late
Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia or Hutu leaders of Rwanda tried there.
As long as Rumsfeld was
serving as the Secretary, German law could not do much to arresting
him when he visited the German bases. But today, I heard in the National
Public Radio that some cases have again been filed in Germany, including
reviving old cases, to try Rumsfeld for war crimes. Those legal experts
who filed the case believe that there is a fair chance of succeeding
in bringing Rumsfeld and other Pentagon brasses to justice. The problem,
however, is even if Rumsfeld and Co. are found guilty and condemned,
I doubt, the USA will allow their extradition for hearing and subsequent
imprisonment. The matter may eventually go to the UN, and I mean, UNSC,
the authority with biting powers. But there as a veto-power, the USA
will not allow its own criminals to be prosecuted. Nonetheless, for
freedom loving people like us, such acts would further isolate the USA
from the rest of the world and limit visits of war criminals to foreign
countries.
Soon after the Democrats
won the Nov., '06 election in the U.S. Senate and the Congress, there
have already been calls for impeaching Bush. I doubt that speaker-elect
Nancy Pelosi will impeach Bush fearing that the move may instead backfire
(something that had happened with Clinton), making Bush and his party
more popular than they ought to be in the next 2008 election (when Bush
will not run, but his party man could win). The prudent method as discussed
today is to let the next two years go without bringing impeachment charges
against Bush, but after his tenure is over, he be tried for a whole
series of charges.
The bottom line is: despots
are not free and cannot feel secure as long as they are alive and outside
the power grid. Their trial and prosecution is necessary to arrest the
epitome of despotism that has stained human rights records in our world.
They need to pay for their crimes eventually.
As I have hinted in my earlier
article in the Burma Digest on what can be done about the SPDC junta,
something that was also agreed upon by Tun Mahathir Muhammad of Malaysia,
our options against the war criminals are very few as long as they are
holding the power. The verdict in Baghdad against Saddam Hossein also
does not encourage them to relinquish that leash of power soon. A compromise
is necessary where they will be promised to be unharmed provided they
relinquish their grip of power peacefully to the elected reps of Burma.
Without that mechanism in place, I am afraid that the junta will stick
to its grip, bringing more calamities to the people. Burma is not the
Middle East for which American and Brit soldiers are willing to die
for hegemony. So, the rules that apply for the Middle Eastern countries,
unfortunately, do not apply to Burma in the dictionary of those who
have the power to bring about that necessary change. They are hypocrites
and war criminals themselves. What do we expect from them other than
lies, deceptions and hypocrisy?
In spite of such grim realities,
however, our struggle for freedom and human rights must go on unperturbed,
for we are aspiring for a higher moral ground and we make no bones about
our righteous cause.
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