War Crimes

Under the shadow of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, leaders of many Arab nations gathered in the tiny African nation of Senegal for the Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting.  While the leaders of the impoverished nation wonder if hosting such an event will ultimately generate good graces from the wealthy oil-rich patrons, some of the leaders used the high-profile forum as a platform to raise issues concerning the broader Middle East.  I wrote last week or so that many Arab leaders were pointing to the ongoing escalation in Gaza as something tantamount to war crimes.  It seems others feel the same way.

Ethnic cleansing and Palestinians

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine the other day at the OIC summit in Dakar accused Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Jerusalem by banning the building of Palestinian homes and cutting the city off from the West Bank. ‘Our people in the city are facing an ethnic cleansing campaign through a set of Israeli decisions … heavy taxes, …closing Palestinian institutions in addition to separating the city from the West Bank by the racist separation wall,’ Mr Abbas reportedly said adding this was in total violation of the peace process. The future of Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its capital, has not been accepted internationally, is one of the most divisive issues facing peace negotiators.

Peace talks between Mr. Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faltered late last year after Israel announced plans to build hundreds of new homes in and around East Jerusalem on land it occupied in 1967. Israel says the construction is within areas it intends to keep in any future peace deal with the Palestinians. It defends its construction of the West Bank barriers that the International Court of Justice has termed illegal. An Israeli spokesman has termed the remarks of Mr. Abbas as ‘inflammatory’ while a US State Department spokesman said the use of the words ‘ethnic cleansing’ was probably an example of ‘overheated political rhetoric’.

OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told the Islamic summit that Israelis responsible for attacks on Palestinians should be tried for war crimes. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has said Israel must stop using disproportionate and excessive force’ against Palestinians. On a subsequent visit to the region, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said the two sides had agreed to resume negotiations, but new Israeli settlement projects in the occupied West Bank have since heightened tensions.

The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel sent a letter to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other ministers that accused the government of war crimes in its latest incursion into Gaza.  The letter reminded the ministers that a key principle in “humanitarian international law is the principle of distinguishing between fighters and civilians during war.” 

The Israeli military launched an incursion into Gaza last week Monday that left over 100 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers dead. Israel is responding to a barrage of rocket attacks from Palestinian militants into southern Israel.

Meanwhile, following meetings in Cairo in preparation for a summit in Damascus later this Spring, the Arab League called the Israeli attacks on Gaza “crimes against humanity.”  The ministers said in a statement they considered “these Israeli crimes as crimes of war,” adding, “The criminal aggression against Gaza shows that Israeli policy against the Palestinian people is based on genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

But will anything happen?  The argument can be made that Israel withdrew its military forces from Gaza after less than a week and that this sort of condemnation harnesses Israeli aggression, but this tit for tat sort of thing is the status quo.  Ariel Sharon, when he served in the military, was a noted aggressor against Arabs and current ministers have made statements suggesting, to coin the phrase, there will be blood.  The Palestinians use force, so the Israelis use force, so the argument goes.  But Israel also has a blockade on Gaza and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East says it will run out of food soon.  The Israelis also tried shutting off the electricity in Gaza to force the residents there to turn against the militants, notably Hamas.  English reports say the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is the worst that it’s been in over 40 years and they blame the Israeli blockade for that atrocity.

This seems to paint a lopsided picture of international law.  There is a tenant in international relations theory that says the most powerful states make all the rules.  They succeed because they are the best at what they do; if you want to be as great, you have to play by their rules too, or you get cast aside.  A question along this front is to ask whether Man follows the rule of God because they are the rules of God, or because God’s rules are good.  In international affairs, it seems that this Hobbesian notion of supremacy also carries into international law.  As an aside, two towns in Vermont passed non-binding resolutions to indict U.S. President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney for violating the U.S. Constitution.  But this, and the international condemnation against Israel, is largely symbolic.  It seems, and this can be supported by the situation in Sudan where many sitting government ministers are accused of war crimes, that the powerful have the privilege of immunity as well.  It was only after the U.S. overthrew the Saddam Hussein regime that Saddam faced justice.  It was only after Yugoslavia collapsed that Slobodan Milosevic was brought before the Hague.  What does this privilege of immunity for the powerful mean for Israel?

A report by the New York based Human Rights Watch states that Israel conducted indiscriminate air raids against Lebanese civilians during the July War with the military wing of Hezbollah. The report alleges that Israel acted with “reckless indifference” regarding the fate of civilians and questioned Israel’s argument that Hezbollah was using civilians as human shields. The five month study said it could find no evidence that human shields were employed by the Shi’ite guerrilla movement, but also noted that Hezbollah “indiscriminately and at times deliberately” targeted Israeli civilians.

The 249 page report, entitled “Why They Died: Civilian Casualties in Lebanon during the 2006 War”, noted that Israel failed to make distinctions between military and civilian targets, often targeting Hezbollah’s social welfare and political interests. The report also notes that Israel did not distinguish between Hezbollah guerilla’s and civilians fleeing combat;

“Hezbollah fighters often didn’t carry their weapons in the open or regularly wear uniforms, which made them a hard target to identify. But that doesn’t justify the Israel Defense Force’s failure to distinguish between civilians and combatants, and if in doubt to treat a person as a civlian, as the laws of war require.”

Israel has countered that it was indeed acting within the standards of military conduct. Mark Regev, Israel’s Foreign Minister, stated Israel had acted accordingly, citing a CNN interview with a U.N. relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, who stated that Hezbollah guerrilla’s were “shielding themselves close to U.N. posts and close to the civilian population.” “Hezbollah had a clear pattern of behavior where it embedded itself among the Lebanese civilian population and exploited it as human shields,” Regev stated. Mr. Regev also noted that Israel had issued several warnings to citizens in southern Lebanon to evacuate the area, however, Human Rights Watch officials countered that “issuing warnings doesn’t make indiscriminate attacks lawful.”

On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah launched rocket attacks on Israeli targets, including Israeli border patrols. Hezbollah attacks killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others. Israel responded with massive force against a wide range of targets in southern Lebanon, as well as bombing the runway of Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport. Hezbollah responsed with Katyusha rocket attacks against civilian targets in Israel. After a U.N. brokered ceasefire, both sides were officially criticized for their actions during the conflict.

More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed during the conflict, in addition to 119 Israeli soldiers and 40 Israeli civilians.

BBC/Reuters

A family representing a human rights activist working in the Palestinian territories is seeking to pursue a case against Caterpillar for aiding and abetting human rights violations.  In 2003, Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old peace activist, was crushed by an Israeli bulldozer manufactured by Caterpillar as she tried to prevent the demolition of homes in the Gaza Strip.  Palestinians effected by the demolitions have also joined the civil case.

The case was dismissed in 2005 on the grounds that Caterpillar was not responsible for the use of its product.  Defense attorneys argue that common law dating back centuries dictates the manufacturer can indeed be held liable.  The defense team for Caterpillar has countered that following that logic would imply that the US was also be responsible for the actions, as Caterpillar is a  US company.  Furthermore, that logic would relegate the case to foreign affairs, requiring US courts to improperly intervene in matters of the executive branch.

In the past, the Nazi trials found chemical manufactures guilty of war crimes for providing the chemicals used to exterminate Jewish citizens in death camps.  Recently, the French businessman, Frans van Anraat, was convicted at The Hague for selling dual use chemicals to the Iraqi government for use at chemical weapons.  A recent case regarding Agent Orange, however, has not yet reached a verdict against the manufacturers of the defoliant. Lawyers in the Agent Orange case argue the harmful effects of dioxin - the active ingredient in Agent Orange - were not know during the Vietnam War.

AP

On this date in 1967, President Abdul Nasser of Egypt orders the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in Egypt to disband. In 1957, Egypt had decided to nationalize the Suez Canal, imposing severe economic complications on Israel and her allies. Mounting circumstances resulted in the eventual invasion of the Sinai Peninsula by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). UNEF troops were deployed to the area to keep the peace following tense diplomatic efforts. Escalations continued in the area throughout the 60’s. Throughout early 1967, Egyptian and United Arab Republic (Syria) forces concentrated their forces in the area and Nasser demanded UNEF forces withdraw in order to prevent UN casualties. The UN had attempted to redeploy UNEF to the Israeli side of the border, but the Israeli government refused. The Israelis saw Arab actions as a strategic move against its interests and launched a pre-emptive attack on Egyptian air defenses on June 5, marking the beginning of the Six-Day War. Six UNEF troops were killed during the conflict.

Complications from the Six-Day War remain today. In May, the Egyptian Foreign Minister demanded a formal inquiry into allegations that IDF had murdered some 400 Egyptian and Palestinian POW’s during the Six-Day War. Israel’s current Infrastructure Prime Minister, Binyamin Ben Eliezer, was the leader of the IDF unit alleged to have committed the atrocities. The Arab coordinator with the International Criminal Court has stated it will file suit against Ben Eliezer at the ICC if Egypt fails to do so. Recently, Ben Eliezer has stated that Israel will continue to engage in “liquidation fire” against suspected Palestinian militants. This is contentious activity on behalf of the Israeli’s as “liquidation fire” is tantamount to assassination attempts, most which occur in civilian areas.

Israel today mounted an aerial attack against a HAMAS security headquarters, killing two and wounding several others. Forces from the US backed Fatah movement and HAMAS officials have been fighting for weeks, threatening the further destabilize the region.

Today also marks the day in 1983 when Israel, Lebanon and the United States signed an agreement for Israeli withdraw from Lebanon. In June, 2006, members from the military wing of Hezb’Allah crossed into Israel and captured IDF soldiers, sparking a war between Hezb’Allah and Israel.

It is also the birthday of the Ayatollah Khomenei.

On a personal note, it is also Alan Johnston’s birthday today.  He is the BBC report stationed in the Gaza Strip and was taken hostage months ago.  As I listen to BBC World Service all day, I wish him a sincere happy birthday.  Please sign the petition on the right in his support.

A joint report from The Center for the Defence of the Individual and B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, allege grave violations of international law occurred at the hands of the Israeli government. According to the report, Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency, degrades Palestinian prisoners and prevents access to lawyers or International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In the case of “ticking bombs”, Shin Bet has employed “special” interrogation methods, including the “shabah position” in which detainees are shackled in stress positions while hooded and listening to loud music. According to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, there has been a sharp increase in “torture, ill treatment, humiliation and incarceration in inhuman conditions of Palestinian detainees by the Shin Bet” since 2003.

As the result of a lawsuit filed in 1999 on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, Shin Bet must operate according to detailed methods. These rules allow the use of “moderate physical and psychological pressure” in order to extract information from detainees, including sensory deprivation. The 1999 ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court did, however, ban certain interrogation methods, such as the “shabah position.” The Court did acknowledge that interrogations were likely to be unpleasant considering their intent was to break the will of the suspect. According to Shin Bet officials, interrogation methods are compliant with the 1999 ruling and that the B’Tselem report is erroneous.

According to the United Nation Convention Against Torture, torture may be defined as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession.” Israel is a signatory to this Convention, though nearly half of Israel Knesset members support harsh interrogation methods.

A report in 2004 suggests that Shin Bet methods were exemplified in the Abu Ghraib scandal, where US military personnel documented several cases of torture committed against Iraqi prisoners.

In related news, a New York federal judge threw out a war crimes charges against a former Shin Bet director for ordering the aerial bombing of civilian targets in an effort to assasinate HAMAS leader, Saleh Shahada.

Opinio Juris is highlighting the case.

San Fransisco Chronicle/Reuters/Guardian UK/Boston Globe
Photo: BBC

This is a brief; topics will be detailed further throughout the week.

Walid Mohammad bin Attash confesses to USS Cole attack.

The CSRT system in Guantanamo Bay has been hearing the cases of fourteen high value detainees transferred there from CIA black sites. The transcripts of Khalid Sheik Mohammed have been outlined previously here. This weekend, the Pentagon released the transcripts of Walid Mohammad bin Attash, who has confessed to playing a large role in planning the USS Cole attacks, where suicide bombers killed 17 and wounded 37 US soldiers.

AP is reporting here. The BBC is developing the story here. A link to transcripts is pending.

SCOTUS blog is also reporting on the Supreme Court reviews of Gitmo cases here.

Japanese Prime Minister denies WWII sexual slavery allegations.

The Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has denied allegations of sexual slaves serving soldiers at brothels during World War II. Abe has been on a diplomatic junket attempting to repair regional accusations of Japanese imperialism, which were reinforced by Abe’s predecessors’ previous actions regarding. The diplomatic junket was in coordination with discussions regarding the 1937 massacre at Nanjing, where an Allied tribunal suggested a death toll of 137,000 at the hands of the Japanese.

Reuters has details here. Details of the Nanjing massacre are here.

Egyptians protest POW massacres.

Egyptians continue to express disdain over allegations of the massacre of Egyptian POW’s by Israeli forces during the 1967 War. Reporting here details the events. This weekend, Egyptian police broke up protests sparked by the documentary, Sprit of Shaked.

I’ve reported on this on March 8^th.

Iraq War Crimes Trials Postponed.

War crimes prosecutions have been postponed in Iraq. A defense attorney had been ejected by judges, who claimed he had been in contempt due to a recent interview. US officials, however, have argued that press communiqué are not grounds for contempt. The trials have been adjourned until March 26^th.

Forbes has details here.

Sudan halts ICC cooperation.

Sudanese officials have suspended their cooperation with the International Court. The Sudanese government in Khartoum has long denied the ICC holds jurisdiction over crimes committed there. Sudanese officials maintain the domestic court system is adequate to try offenses there, though many of the court decisions have been relatively minor charges.

I’ve reported on this here. The Media Line outlines this development here.