HVK Archives: Genocide accepted is genocide engouraged
Genocide accepted is genocide engouraged - The Asian Age
News
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28 August 1996
Title : Genocide accepted is genocide encouraged
Author : News
Publication : The Asian Age
Date : August 28, 1996
During the first months of my new government, Pakistan
decided to make a million-dollar contribution to the War
Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. We did this despite
vehement arguments from those who believe the best way to
deal with past horrors is to bury the truth alongside the
victims, never to be disturbed again. To relive
atrocities they said, is to destroy any chance for
healing.
But this is simply not true - if we are going to ever
have lasting peace in places like Bosnia, justice must be
served. Inaction in response to war crimes compounds the
injury of the victims and only encourages future abuses.
When we pick and chose which crimes we'll look into and
which we'll ignore were giving ruthless dictators carte
black to commit genocide.
As I said in a speech before the World Affairs Council in
199S, morality selectively applied is, by definition,
immoral. Justice must he swift, no matter how unpleasant
the resulting investigations may be.
The framework for such global action is clearly set out.
The Vienna Declaration states that universal rights are
legitimate subjects for review by international
organisations. The Genocide Convention of 1942 asserts
that the community of nations has an obligation to
establish trials and enforce universally agreed standards
of human rights, including the creation of international
trials to prosecute war criminals.
Sadly, this has not been the way the world has acted over
the last 50 years. And millions have died because of our
neglect.
Early on in Adolf Hitler's career, he asked, "Who
remembers the Armenians" In other words, if others could
get away with genocide and ethnic cleansing, then he
could too. Unfortunately, his deeds soon gave proof to
the ferocity of his words.
Fifty years later, it seems the Bosnian Serbs asked
themselves the same cynical question as they ravaged
Bosnia-Herzegovina. If the nations of the world stood by
as the Khmer Rouge slaughtered over one million in
Cambodia, why would anyone care about a little bloodshed
in Bosnia?
The lesson is clear: Genocide acquiesced to is genocide
encouraged. If the world cannot unite to enforce
standards of universal human rights, international
society has no moral foundation. Without enforcement,
our commitment to human rights is meaningless.
We must go well beyond sanctimonious rhetoric and begin
the often-difficult task of implementation and
enforcement. We must be prepared to act.
Bosnia, then, is a test case as to whether the world is
serious about its commitment to human rights and
morality. Will we dare to uncover the truth, no matter
how embarrassing -it may be to the nations that stood by
while the atrocities occurred? Or will we turn a blind
eye to the genocide, allowing these wounds to fester
until violence erupts again?
The punishment of the guilty restores a sense of honour
and dignity to the victims and provides them and their
families' with a sense of justice and catharsis. It also
establishes a psychological closure to the horror, and a
sense of finality and completeness.
Whether it be the Nazi Holocaust, the devastation in
Cambodia, the slaughter of the Tutsis in Rwanda or the
ethnic cleansing of the Bosnian Muslims, the community of
nations has a vested interest in promoting and enforcing
basic standards of international and personal conduct
that will make such tragedies less likely in the future.
Those of us in position,, of leadership as the new
millennium approaches have a special responsibility to
ensure that morality is not only universal but
universally applied and enforced.
I echo the words of another young leader, US President
Bill Clinton, who recently said: "Now it falls to our
generation to make good on its promise to put into
practice the principle that those who violate universal
human rights must be called to account for those
actions."
There is no better, no more fitting place for this
principle to be applied than at the War Crimes Tribunals
now forming in The Hague on the question of Bosnian
genocide. Pakistan stands firmly behind these actions,
both emotionally and financially.
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