http://musliminsuffer.wordpress.com/
bismi-lLahi-rRahmani-rRahiem
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
=== News Update ===
War Criminals, Beware
By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith
11/05/06 "The Nation" -- -- On November 14 a group of lawyers and other
experts will come before the German federal prosecutor and ask him to
open a criminal investigation targeting Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto
Gonzales and other key Bush Administration figures for war crimes. The
recent passage of the Military Commissions Act provides a central
argument for the legal action, under the doctrine of universal
jurisdiction: It demonstrates the intent of the Bush Administration to
immunize itself legally from prosecution in the United States, even for
the most serious crimes.
The Rumsfeld action was announced at a conference in New York City in
late October titled "Is Universal Jurisdiction an Effective Tool?" The
doctrine allows domestic courts to prosecute international crimes
regardless of where the crime was committed, the nationality of the
perpetrator or the nationality of the victim. It is reserved for only
the most heinous offenses: genocide, war crimes and crimes against
humanity, including torture. A number of countries around the world have
enacted universal jurisdiction statutes; even the United States allows
it for certain terrorist offenses and torture.
Many of the participants in the New York conference were human rights
lawyers who have been expanding the use of universal jurisdiction since
it was employed against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. In a
recent case brought in Spain, for example, Argentine Adolfo Scilingo was
tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity he committed in
Argentina and sentenced to serve a 640-year prison term [see Geoff
Pingree and Lisa Abend, "Spanish Justice," October 9]. The decision was
made to try to prosecute Rumsfeld in Germany because its laws facilitate
the use of universal jurisdiction.
The conference was sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Rights
(CCR), which is bringing the case against Rumsfeld, and by the
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), a network of 141
national human rights organizations founded in 1922.
An earlier case against Rumsfeld was brought two years ago in Germany by
CCR on behalf of four Iraqi victims of Abu Ghraib, drawing largely on
documents and photos that revealed abuse at the prison. As the case was
being considered, a security conference loomed in Munich. Rumsfeld, who
could have been served papers or even arrested, refused to attend unless
the case was dismissed. It was dismissed February 10; Rumsfeld flew to
Germany the next day.
The reason the prosecutor gave for the dismissal was that there was "no
reason to believe that the accused would not be prosecuted in the United
States"--notwithstanding powerful evidence that the officials who
controlled prosecution were themselves part of the conspiracy to commit
war crimes. The new complaint will be based on the failure of US
authorities to investigate and prosecute high-level officials.
The case will draw on a powerful new argument. The Military Commissions
Act of 2006, which the President promoted and recently signed into law,
provides retroactive immunity for civilians who violated the War Crimes
Act, including officials of the Bush Administration. Such an attempt to
provide immunity for their crimes, it will be argued, is in itself
evidence of an effort to block prosecution of those crimes. Indeed,
according to Scott Horton, chair of the International Law Committee of
the New York City Bar Association, when Yugoslavia sought to immunize
senior government officials, the United States declared the act itself
to be evidence of such a conspiracy.
The new case will introduce other important elements as well. Lawyers
who served as advocates, architects and enablers of prisoner abuse
policies, like Alberto Gonzales and John Yoo, will be added as
defendants. Abuse in Guantánamo will be added to that in Abu Ghraib. The
complaint will present new evidence showing responsibility for torture
and prisoner abuse at the highest levels of the chain of command.
Wolfgang Kaleck, a German human rights lawyer who is bringing the case
in cooperation with CCR, FIDH and other groups, told the conference in
New York that he is often asked, Do you really expect Rumsfeld to be
arrested for war crimes? His answer is that he doesn't expect it
immediately. "But we make it possible that someday Rumsfeld will be
arrested," he says. According to Kaleck, the German government regularly
receives calls from potential high-level visitors asking, "Are there any
complaints against me?"
Antoine Bernard, FIDH executive director, says that although there have
been few convictions so far based on universal jurisdiction, "now fear
is not just on the side of the victims but also of the torturers." And
that, supporters argue, will have a deterrent effect on government
officials who contemplate using torture.
Peter Weiss, vice president of both CCR and FIDH and an elder statesman
of international human rights law, notes that it took fifty years to get
the Supreme Court's Brown decision outlawing school segregation, but
during all that time people kept bringing cases that eventually changed
the legal system's fundamental position. "New norms are being
constituted to deal with the reality on the ground," he said. "Later
those norms become real, practical, enforceable law."
Jeremy Brecher is a historian whose books include Strike!, Globalization
from Below, and, co-edited with Brendan Smith and Jill Cutler, In the
Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond
(Metropolitan/Holt). He has received five regional Emmy Awards for his
documentary film work. He is a co-founder of WarCrimesWatch.org
source:
http://www.thenation.com/
===
-muslim voice-
______________________________________
BECAUSE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Ajaklah teman dan saudara anda bergabung ke milis Media Dakwah.
Kirim email ke: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/media-dakwah/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/media-dakwah/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
