9 - 15 August 2001
Issue No.546
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 9 - 15 August 2001 Issue No.546 |
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International justice
Since the war crimes tribunal began its activities in the Hague, a number of major war criminals from Rwanda and Yugoslavia have been arrested. The last such triumph was the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, Yugoslavia's despot. The debate on international justice has since spread remarkably. Many people have entertained hopes of an international effort to try despots who commit crimes, whether against their own people or others.
Many such crimes were perpetrated against a backdrop of war or internal conflict, and their perpetrators, in defiance of international agreements, committed massacres, provoked genocide and approved concentration camps with impunity. It is in this context that Arab hopes have taken off, envisioning Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other Israeli military war criminals standing trial before a war-crimes court for supervising the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in Lebanon in 1982.
But the trial of Sharon differs from the trial of Milosevic in one crucial respect: Milosevic will be tried on the basis of a UN decision to establish a "special tribunal" for war crimes in areas of conflict (the Balkans, Rwanda, the Congo); while Sharon, if he ever stands before a court, will undergo trial through the agency of Belgian legislation, which allows the indictment of any person charged with crimes against humanity. Similarly, most European states have incorporated war crimes and genocide into their legislation so that war criminals can be tried, irrespective of nationality, so long as there is enough evidence to indict them. This is precisely what happened to the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet during his visit to London.
Yet it is only natural that the establishment of a war-crimes tribunal should be subject to the political influence of world powers, particularly the United States, which controls Security Council resolutions. Superpowers are willing to countenance the trial of war criminals from Rwanda and Yugoslavia -- possibly even Sudan or Iraq -- but not Israel, which committed crimes against Egyptian prisoners-of-war and Palestinians. Trials undertaken within the rubric of a particular country's legislation, correspondingly, are subject to the political conditions of that country. The trial of Sharon in Belgium, to take one crucial example, is opposed by the Jewish lobby, Israel and the United States.
So it is understandable that Washington should vehemently oppose the establishment of a permanent international criminal court -- an objective, effective and speedy institution not subject to the influence of superpowers -- which respects no edicts of immunity.
In 1998, 120 states signed an agreement in Rome to establish an international criminal court that would fit this description. To be effective, this agreement requires the parliamentary sanction of at least 60 of these states. Yet the US Congress refuses to sanction the agreement fearing that American soldiers on humanitarian missions might fall under such a court's jurisdiction. In fact, the US and Israel are the two countries most opposed to the establishment of this court, which is why the project has not been carried out. For its part, the US is working to establish special tribunals on a case-by-case basis to avoid a permanent international court.
Egypt, of course, supports the establishment of the international court, and it is in the interests of all Arab states to sanction the Rome agreement as soon as they can. Equally in their interest is the reform of local criminal codes, so that crimes against humanity, irrespective of nationality and place of origin, might be incorporated into their respective legislative codes. This will not only bring about the desired trial of Sharon but contribute to the establishment of true international justice.
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