Posts Tagged ‘International Court tribunal’
Lebanon Militia warlords: Could face international trials for crimes against humanity. As easy as ABC
Posted by: adonis49 on: May 16, 2012
Militia warlords may face international trial: As easy as ABC
Two easy legal venues are available to bring to trial the Lebanese militia warlords of the civil war who committed crimes against humanity after 1986, particularly the common tactic of “genocidal ethnic and religious cleansing” and transfer of citizens…
First, any eye-witness to a case of torture can bring a warlord to trial. The legal case is easy to submit to the International Court Tribunal and can prevent this warlord leader from traveling overseas and be apprehended in airports. Dozen of these cases have been successful: Palestinian lawyers have lodged complaints and scores of Israeli military officers are already apprehended as war criminals.
For example, the main reason Israel Netanyahu PM agreed to obey the ruling of Israel High Court for vacating a settlement in Beit Eel was that Israel and the political officials will inevitably have to deal with the International Court Tribunal in La Hay.
The warlord leaders will also discover that all their assets overseas (liquid money and properties) can be ceased…
Second, the political parties of these warlords, organizations, movements…that contributed and participated in the crimes against humanity can be investigated by international legal teams on behalf of the World Legal Organization and Amnesty International. The report of the investigators will pinpoint the responsibilities of the leading personalities in the crimes committed.
The criminal organizations will be banned to participate in world community conferences…and the major benefit is the opportunity of preserving historical records of the civil war…
Most militia warlords are in power in Lebanon and acting as if they cannot be legally touched. Why?
Because the same warlords issued a general amnesty in 1990. But the international legal cases go beyond what particular a State wants. For example:
Nabih Berri (Chairman of the Parliament) committed genocide against the Palestinians in refugee camps.
Walid Jumblatt publicly admitted of executing all his prisoners and dumping them in deep wells, iniInterviews and in speeches
Samir Geajah (Lebanese Forces) admitted publicly to crimes against humanity…I watched a rerun of an official scene of execution of a guy condemned for being a “spy to the Lebanese army“. The scene was in a forest with hundreds of members and Geajah himself giving the order. The brothers of the victims are still alive and sounding the bell every year.
There are many books by Lebanese of eye-witness accounts and autobiographies for being engaged in this dirty civil war.
Exposing one such warlord will put the pressure on the other political criminals to listen seriously to the demand of the people to step aside and let reforms be contemplated…
There is already an International Court Tribunal for Lebanon since 2007 and related to the assassination of late Rafic Harri PM…and scores of potential criminals are being investigated in that case.
We urge Lebanese who are eye-witness to crimes against humanity (torture, execution of “prisoners”, transfer of citizens…) to come forth. Most probably, those already settled overseas should feel secure enough to taking bold and courageous legal steps to save the Lebanese who are still suffering from indignities and constant humiliation from the still ruling warlord militia leaders…
Many foreign correspondent and journalists covered extensively Lebanon civil war and published eye-witness accounts of the dirty war.
I urge Robert Fisk and a few of his colleagues to be the catalyst in encouraging the Lebanese and start the process of lodging legal cases, strong with the documents they possess…
This June, 27 non-government associations convinced former civil war “fighters” to come forward under the organization of “Our Unity, Our Redemption” and deliver their eye-witness accounts. The first meeting gathered in the Newspaper syndicate in Beirut and the former militias talked to the audience.
The first batch was composed of Mohyeddine Chehab, Asaad Chaftari, Ziad Saab, Haidar 3ammacha, and Rafic Kattan. Asaad Chaftari already published part of his accounts several years ago.
This is an excellent starting point into gathering a tight legal file for further processes…
Note 1: Post inspired from the article of Mohannad Haj Ali (researcher in London) published in the Lebanese daily Al Nahar
Note 2: https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/political-self-criticism/
Son of man: I say “Margin for freedom”
Posted by: adonis49 on: February 24, 2009
Son of man: Margin for freedom, (February 25, 2009)
Half a century ago, heredity defined to great extent every individual. Every one of us is the product of long lines of successive unions and yet the probability of identical persons is nil among the billions upon billions of human kinds that roamed earth. Every person that dies is never replaced and his unique set of characteristics is gone for ever. Maybe our margin for developing certain characteristics is limited; and though what could be modified a little by nature, environment, social conditions, and personal struggle will have an impact in defining future generations, over long period.
We have always attributed our reality to act of God, His will, our Destiny; we have been sons of God until recently. Research and technology is altering many genomes for a healthier man, even before he is born, even when he is a fetus, even by sorting out and selecting one among the many embryos to re-insert in the mother’s uterus. Man has started to affect genetically future generations. God is no longer the sole and exclusive owner of man.
Man is becoming part owner, though with a tiny share so far. As long as man is not able to tamper with the brain on a large scale, the “God” of the various religious clerics will still have the bigger share to man. When you partially own a person, then you are responsible for the whole entity. We tended to let God off the hook for too long.
If man has to be taken to court for wrong doing or designing and manufacturing defective products, then it is about time that God be taken to court after each war, each genocide, each apartheid systems perpetrating actions of suffering and humiliation to mankind.
We have always attributed to God all the good values, even the immoral values in our daily realities. The attributes that we didn’t appreciate in God, we have tried hard to interpret them in a lenient manner. If God exists, and he should exist, then God has to be taken to the International Tribunal for crimes against humanity.
That is the margin of liberty that we still own; to study, read, reflect, have our own opinions, take hold of our personal responsibilities, and act accordingly. When a person denies his own share of responsibility and stop reflecting and studying, then all he does is but wind. I have published many “poems” and I selected two that might be representative of this article.
I Say
I say, every one must have his identity:
Death has forced on us the I.
I say, what exists must be discovered:
Death impressed on us to know.
I say, every feeling must be experienced:
Death created stages for us to grow.
I say, there must be a meaning to life:
Death did not leave us a choice in that.
A Gentle Touch*
Prettier than white dust
You shall never be.
Uglier than a skeleton
You can never be.
Toward the scared souls, scared of death,
Scared in living,
Let your stretched hand
Be gentler, your voice softer.
Genocides: do execute!
Posted by: adonis49 on: December 7, 2008
International Court Tribunal for genocides: do execute! (November 17, 2008)
Note: The recurrence of civil wars and genocides in a cyclical pattern in the Congo Zaire, Somalia, and Palestine/Israel required the courage to come forward.
We need to discriminate among the categories of mass murderers in genocide cases; those who gave orders to kill and maim, those who followed ordered under duress of being executed on the spot, those who followed order under duress of facing court martial and execution, and those who followed orders simply for fear of career, material and financial losses. I would like all those who gave orders to kill and maim, from the highest to the lowest ranking, politicians and military men, to be executed. I would like the last category of murderers, who had choices not to follow orders, but did it for material benefits, to be executed in the International Tribunal. The two categories of murderess of those who barely had choices unless they die need to serve prison terms; the confinement in special prisons is for their own benefit: they would be able to focus on their deeds and then pay their dues to society and thus avoiding personal revenge from a “legitimate” point of view.
Sure, no prison terms would eliminate the nagging conscious for the rest of a life but it might be helpful to permit convicts of moving on, change behavior and participate within society instead of living on the fringes. Of the four categories of murderers I am inclined to select the first category as the most vile and degraded human beings; at least instead of giving orders the officer should do the killing or maiming then he could be included in the prison terms categories and he would have avoided spreading cowardice and immoral behavior among his soldiers and subordinates.
In just the last two decades, over one hundred military conflicts were being waged around the world; most of them were hate conflicts among tribes, races, ethnic groups and sectarian sects. Over 30 millions were displaced and more on the run. Famine and diseases and under-development followed, killing millions more. The European States and the USA have enacted stringent regulations to limit the flow of political refugees. Lebanon was a prime example in the eighties, Cambodia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Algeria, Yugoslavians, Bosnians and Croatians in Eastern Europe, and then Rwanda in Africa, Congo, Chechnya, Armenia, then Nigeria, Liberia, Sera Leon, then Ivory Coast, then Chad, then Afghanistan, then Iraq and now Pakistan and the cycle returns with Lebanon, Georgia, Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Turkey against the Kurds.
All the militias in all these conflicts harbor the same behavior and attitudes; they raise high their Kalashnikov, they show their cigarettes in the same manner, they take nonchalant breaks, and then they are up to resume their dirty immoral killing and maiming as regular jobs. They all claim to follow orders from superiors and they are not that worried of being persecuted in justice. Most of the militias are barely over 16 and in Africa 10-year old were recruited (the most lethal and scary midget assassins). In some countries almost a fifth of the population participated in the war, directly or indirectly, and they all got used to observing the massacres and blood shed and humiliations.
Gunter Grass mentioned that over 20,000 German deserters were executed because they refused to follow orders for the mass killing. Why these real heroes have been forgotten and not commemorated every year? Ironically, these heroes are still considered as cowards and traitors by the German Army and most German civilians! Why only a sample, if any, of the perpetrators of genocides are brought to trial?
I can comprehend the example of South Africa for general amnesty as long as the guilty admits and clarify his deeds: you cannot imprison the fifth of the population because they willingly and ideologically participated in the apartheid system. Argentina followed suit so did Chili but they should not have voted amnesty because only select circles in the army performed the genocides. Lebanon voted amnesty to all, except those who killed clergymen, but went much further in the ignominy: the militia leaders were all appointed ministers for recompense and their subordinates elected deputies in the Parliament!
Adonis Diaries 