Landscapes of Impunity or Landscapes of Hope? The Choice is Ours

Laurie King-Irani, Ph.D., North American Coordinator International Campaign for Justice for the Victims of Sabra and Shatila, www.indictsharon.net

(Victoria, BC, Canada. 9 May 2002) -- Beirut, 1982. Manhattan, 2001. Netanya and Jenin, 2002. Landscapes of horror, death and destruction; landscapes of impunity. The cries of the bereaved and odors of death erase local particularities while demonstrating humanity's infinite capacity to cause suffering. Over the past year, we have had many reminders that human beings are capable of infinite destruction and cruelty. But human beings are also capable of creating a worldwide landscape of social and political justice.

The foundations of this alternative landscape are not hidden, but clearly encoded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, most notably the IV Geneva Conventions adopted at the end of World War II to halt grave violations of civilians' rights. Last month's ratification of the International Criminal Court (ICC) offers new promise that landscapes of impunity may eventually be replaced with landscapes of hope, despite the alarming US decision to withdraw from this important attempt at ensuring global justice.

Other signs of hope are also emerging. In the 1990s, the Belgian legislature formally incorporated the principle of Universal Jurisdiction for war crimes into its criminal code. This enables Belgian courts to hear cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide regardless of where the crimes were committed or the nationalities of the victims and perpetrators. Since the ICC will lack retroactive jurisdiction over war crimes committed prior to July 1, 2002, the Belgian courts provide a much-needed venue for addressing cases of impunity for war crimes that have festered for decades, poisoning hearts and minds and fueling new rounds of vengeance and suffering.

A key principle of the growing international campaign against impunity is "one yardstick for human rights." Attempts to hold war criminals accountable multiplied after Spain requested the extradition of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet in 1998. Since then, the impunity of other infamous human rights violators --Hissein Habre of Chad, Henry Kissinger, and Saddam Hussein--has been challenged or proposed to be challenged in various judicial venues.

Perhaps the most high-profile case yet to be brought before the Belgian courts is a complaint lodged last June by 23 survivors of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre against Ariel Sharon, then-Israel's minister of defence, along with other Israelis and Lebanese, for the deaths of over 1,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. The complaint charges Sharon with ultimate responsibility for the massacres (for which no one has ever stood trial), based on the principle of Command Responsibility. As the commanding general of the Israeli Defence Forces which had occupied Beirut that summer of 1982, Sharon is culpable, under the Geneva Conventions, for any harm that befell civilians in areas occupied by the IDF.

The Belgian judiciary will hear the final arguments by lawyers for the plaintiffs and lawyers for Sharon and other Israelis on May 15 and will render a decision on the admissibility of this case by July of this year. To date, Belgium's Attorney General has repeatedly stated that this case has serious merit. Leading international human rights organizations have also expressed formal support for a judicial investigation into Ariel Sharon's culpability for war crimes in Lebanon. Although a February 14th ruling by the International Court of Justice at the Hague concerning head of state immunity has cast a shadow of doubt over the case against Sharon, it remains an instructive example of the aims and workings of international justice and the power of average people to comprehend and use international humanitarian law.

Over the last few weeks, many have asked whether the IDF committed a massacre in Jenin. With the disbanding of a UN commission of inquiry, we may never know exactly what happened or how many died in Jenin. It is clear, however, that Israel has violated international laws with impunity in the West Bank and Gaza--and not just during last month's incursions. As an occupying power, Israel is in serious breach of the Geneva Conventions by building settlements, undertaking extra-judicial killings, torture, arbitrary detention, collective punishment, and the imposition of sieges on a largely unarmed civilian population. This is virtually guaranteed to usher in a new, much bloodier, round of suicide bombings--some of which could even happen in the US--if those responsible for grave breaches of the Geneva Convention are not brought to book.

This is what impunity for war crimes leads to: When people do not have recourse through proper channels, when they cannot obtain restitution and closure through the courts, the state, the international community, the UN, or the Hague, they may take matters into their own hands. Not because they are part of an "axis of evil" or were socialized into a particularly barbarous culture, but because this is what humans do when they are robbed of their dignity, see their children die, watch their parents deteriorate from despair and humiliation, and realize that they have absolutely no future, whether economic, political, social, or psychological.

Perhaps the only good to emerge from the recent carnage in the West Bank is that people are confronting the futility of revenge. Many Americans are questioning their government's unconditional support of and military aid to Israel. Many are speaking out in favor of the growing international campaign against impunity for war crimes. Unless the US government heeds increasing calls to enforce and implement international law fairly, more deaths of Israelis, Palestinians and even Americans are likely to result. Since we have a choice, let's put teeth into International Law and build landscapes of hope upon the charred landscapes of impunity spreading with alarming rapidity throughout our shared world.

[Confronting War Crimes]