| July 3, 2002 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 21,1423 |
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Shocking beyond belief
A costly error
AIMED at bringing to justice perpetrators of crimes against humanity, the first permanent war crimes tribunal opened its doors in The Hague on Monday. However, this historic event was all but overshadowed by the US demand that its peacekeeping forces be granted immunity from prosecution by the new International Criminal Court. One immediate outgrowth of Washington’s opposition to the ICC was a US attempt to scuttle the UN peacekeeping mission to Bosnia. In the face of fierce opposition from most nations, Washington decided to veto the Security Council resolution extending the Bosnia mission. The move provoked an uproar, and only hectic diplomatic activity by France and the UK made the US relent. In the end, it agreed to keep the mission alive for another three days to give the Security Council time to find a way to meet its demands. The US has threatened to withdraw from all UN peace-keeping missions if the demand for immunity is not met. The action has provoked outrage and could pose a serious threat to the future of international peace-keeping forces across the globe.
The US rejection of the ICC is based on an overblown fear that its troops stationed in foreign countries could be singled out for frivolous or politically motivated actions in the court. Such fears are wholly misplaced. Enough safeguards have been built into the ICC mandate to preclude such a possibility. In any case, the war crimes court is only meant to take up those cases where a government is unable or unwilling to prosecute. The court will be able to try anyone — including a head of state — for serious offences such as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed after July 2, 2002. The US had staunchly opposed the setting up of such a court and has refused to ratify the treaty. The move is in line with a string of recent US decisions on international treaties, where a growing unilateralist tendency has been all too evident. In recent months, the US has rejected the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, walked out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, embarked on the development of the controversial national missile defence system as well as scuttled a number of arms control measures.
For many of Washington’s more multilaterally inclined allies, these measures reflect an alarming new mindset. As the self-appointed policeman of the world and the sole superpower, the US increasingly refuses to accept any kind of international constraints on its power. The rejection of the ICC also stems from the same unilateralist tendency. As one senior US writer on security issues put it trenchantly, “We have created a set of rules, and one of the rules is that rules are for others”. This arrogance does not bode well for the future of global cooperation or security. Already, large cracks are opening up between the US and its European allies on a whole range of issues - from Palestine to Afghanistan and from Iraq to Iran.
THE report of a teenaged girl having been subjected to gang-rape by a tribal council in Meerwala Jatoi, district Muzaffargarh, is shocking beyond belief. What is still worse is that the police have not made any arrests even though the barbaric atrocity took place more than a week ago - on June 23 - in the presence of some 1,000 villagers. A council of the elders of the Mastoi clan ordered the outrageous ‘punishment’ for the girl belonging to the Gujjar clan whose 14-year old brother had dared to court a “higher caste” Mastoi woman. The girl’s father was forced to present his 18-year old daughter for rape by four Mastoi men to save all other women in his family from facing a similar fate. The incident is a shameful reminder of how certain horrid tribal customs continue to make a mockery of the rule of law by running a parallel system of tribal justice based on primitive notions of honour, vendetta and so forth.
The rights groups across the country are naturally outraged at the criminal audacity of the said council and its success in having its savage verdict on the innocent girl carried out. They must also be appalled by the authorities’ apathetic attitude to such happenings - until they are moved into action - as in this case, by the intercession of a lawyers’ delegation. The incident brings back the memories of the Nawabpur incident some years ago, when a number of women were paraded naked through the village street to satisfy an influential landlord’s arrogant desire for vendetta. Even though there was much public outcry for punishment following the criminal act, the perpetrators of the disgraceful act were never brought to justice. Surprisingly, no mainstream political or religious parties ever take a stand on such reprehensible acts of violence against women. Just goes to show how cosmetic their commitment to civil society and human values is. In any case, the government must do its duty of bringing the perpetrators of the ignominious act in Meerwala Jatoi to justice in a swift and speedy manner, if it wishes to absolve itself of what should be termed the entire nation’s collective shame.
THE Rambo-like ways of the US military operation in Afghanistan seem to have led to another costly blunder. American aircraft and helicopter gunships mistakenly attacked a wedding party in Oruzgan province in central Afghanistan on Monday night killing at least 40 innocent civilians and wounding 70 others. A US military spokesman at the Bagram base outside Kabul said that the air cover was called when a reconnaissance mission of US special forces soldiers and Afghan troops came under what the Americans claim was sustained automatic gunfire from alleged Al Qaeda operatives hiding in the area. A 2,000-pound laser-guided bomb dropped by a B-52 bomber went astray and hit the place where the wedding was taking place. A local official claimed on Tuesday that the attack was probably part of an on-going search for the former supreme Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, who is a native of Oruzgan. In fact, it was in this province that 21 Afghans died in a similar attack earlier this year. Then, too, the US military had rather unconvincingly insisted that alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants had been targeted — only to admit later that the attack had indeed killed innocent people.
Coming on the heels of the tumultuous and controversial Loya Jirga assembly and reports of friction and wrangling over the composition of the interim cabinet, such horrifying incidents are the last thing Hamid Karzai’s government needs to be faced with. The US has offered its “deepest sympathies” to the families of the dead but in a country torn by years of war and destruction that is hardly any solace for the bereaved families. By now, the Americans should have realized that weddings in Afghanistan, like in much of Pushtun society, are a noisy affair with firing in the air as common as the presence of bridesmaids at a western wedding. It is quite possible — and residents of the area where the attack took place insist on this — that the Americans mistook the firing at the wedding for an attack on them. Then, there is the other possibility, and this too has happened in the past, when rival warlords have tried to settle their personal scores by telling the Americans that alleged Al Qaeda members are hiding in a particular area when in reality they just happen to be their local opponents. Whatever the case, there should be in place a more accurate way of verifying the situation on the ground before the Americans and their allies launch an attack.