...Running head: War Crimes and the International Community War Crimes and the International Community Abhishek Gandhi Professor Farber Sociology 300 Summer 2012 Abstract What are war crimes? Inhuman acts have been committed in all wars throughout human history. It has only been in the last 2 centuries that certain acts that were committed during war were found to be so reprehensible that they were labeled war crimes. Even thought these acts were committed during the "fog of war", they still merited punishment in a court of law in the eyes of the international community. When military and political leaders began to systematically target large civilian groups because of their nationality, ethnicity, gender or religion, then the international community began to see the necessity of holding political leaders accountable for their political decisions in a court of law, (Hauss, 2003). After World War II, when the atrocities of the Holocaust became well known, the victorious Allied powers decided to hold war crimes tribunals to punish the political and military leaders of Germany and Japan. The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials were the first of their kind in establishing international precedent for the prosecution of war crimes. Later war crimes that were committed in Yugoslavia and Rwanda resulted in the creation of separate tribunals by the United Nations to punish the leaders who perpetrated these acts. Attempts are...
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...person comes to mind and it is a choice that I don’t take lightly because of what he did before he turned his life around. Liberia and Sierra Leone were the scenes of human atrocities that war caused and brutality against human kind that man conducted. The hacking off of limbs and raping of women were just some of the crimes committed against humanity. One man in particular was the most brutal of all. His name is known as General Butt Naked. Known for going into battle only with ammo a weapon and shoes, his army of kidnapped and drugged child soldiers committed killings of other women men and children under his command. After the war this General was visited by a priest and told him that he would atone for his crimes and raise up the very people he destroyed. During the war crimes tribunal, amnesty was offered to all those who committed crimes and killings during the war. The only person who showed up was General Butt Naked. He was pardoned for his crimes because of what he had been doing before the tribunal. This man raped killed and mutilated people without thought. But he did something that changed my mind and life after watching his documentary. He gave his life to God and began a crusade by saying two words, “I’m sorry.” He went to every village, home and person that he committed these crimes against and apologized. He gave up his life and used it to start the process of reconciliation and forgiveness. I don’t take what he did lightly and I would not call him a great person,...
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...Army Regulation 190–8 OPNAVINST 3461.6 AFJI 31-304 MCO 3461.1 Military Police Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees and Other Detainees Headquarters Departments of the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps Washington, DC 1 October 1997 UNCLASSIFIED SUMMARY of CHANGE AR 190–8/OPNAVINST 3461.6/AFJI 31–304/MCO 3461.1 Enemy Prisoners of War, Retained Personnel, Civilian Internees and Other Detainees This revision-o o o Establishes a multi-service regulation for all services (para 1-4a). Ensures compliance with DOD Directive 2310.1 dated August 1994 (para 1-4g). Establishes HQDA, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations as the primary Army Staff responsibility for the Enemy Prisoner of War, Civilian Internee and Retained Persons Program (para 1-4c). Establishes a DD FORM 2745, Enemy Prisoner of War(EPW) Capture Tag (para 21b). Highlights Combatant Commanders, Task Force Commanders and Joint Task Force Commanders responsibilities (para 1-4g). Establishes procedures for conducting tribunals (para 1-6). Establishes Public Affairs policy (para 1-9). Establishes policy for EPW held aboard ship (para 2-1b). Updates OCONUS evacuation policy (para 2-3). Establishes the use of Health and Comfort Packs as a temporary substitution for Advance of Pay for short term operations (para 3-4h). Updates procedures for contracting EPW (para 4-22). Combines AR 190-8 and AR 190-57 (para 6-1). o o o o o o o o o Headquarters Departments of...
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...Decisions of Post - War As a war comes to an end, the main controversial issue is the peace treaty that is signed and the outcomes of the war. However, ending a war is significantly more complicated than the mere content publicized. There are many methods of approaching the aggressor of war; primarily retribution or rehabilitation. The concepts and effects of both models will be analyzed and applied to a debatable contemporary situation. Revenge and Retribution After war, the model of retribution assumes that “the good side” triumphs over “the aggressor” and punishes the “aggressor” accordingly and appropriately. With regards to its structure; first and foremost, a public peace treaty is signed between both sides. The basic details of the treaty are generally publicly announced so that everyone knows that the war is over and the basic consequences and results of the war. Afterwards, the winners and the losers both exchange all prisoners of war captured during the conflict. Once that has been handled, the aggressor must proceed to giving a public apology by admitting fault and guilt for causing the war. However small this task may be, it is generally very controversial because it is the most sincere (and probably only) thing a country can do for other countries that it has harmed. Next, war crime trials are held for soldiers and officers who may have violated various war agreements. For example, the murder of innocent citizens and torturing of POW’s are crimes that one can be...
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...During WWII, the treatment of prisoners of war was supposedly governed by the Geneva Conventions, the first of which was signed in 1906, and was operative during WWI, and the second of which was sign in Switzerland, 1929. The second Geneva Convention had been signed by the powerhouses of the Western world, including Britain, Italy, the US and Germany. The Allied Forces were under stern orders to treat Axis prisoners according to the conventions, and this order was mostly followed. Generally, the Axis countries treated prisoners from Australia and other Allied Forces in accordance with the conventions. The Germans were even obliged to apply this humane treatment to Jewish POWs who wore the British Army uniform, thus sparing them the horrible...
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...EN4120 23 August 2013 ITT Technical Institute Abstract Torture should be allowed if it saves lives. Why should any lives be lost if there is a way to save them. Terrorists are not even protected by the Geneva Conventions so why should they have the same rights and privileges as Prisoners of War. Is Torture Justified? So the question is, Is Torture Justified? My claim is that as long as torture saves lives then torture should be allowed by all means. Torture has always been a part of civilization. It goes back as far as the Greeks and Romans and as recently as when detainees were being held in Guantánamo Bay Cuba in 2004. In 1949 the Geneva Conventions was sanctioned during the wake of World War II. Even though the Geneva Conventions of 1949 was established torture has been and is still used inappropriately. Cornell University Law School found, “The Geneva Conventions are a series of treaties on the treatment of civilians, prisoners of war (POWs) and soldiers who are otherwise rendered hors de combat, or incapable of fighting.” The Geneva Conventions explains how terrorists are defined under the Geneva Conventions as not being held up to the same standards as Prisoner Of War are. So if terrorists are not to be considered protected by the Geneva Conventions then in that case torture should be justified for a least terrorists. Just think how many lives could have been saved if United States had the means or the opportunity to have tortured someone prior to September 11...
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...Assignment of 1 Year MBA – Semester – 2 Subject: International Law What are your perceptions on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Would you like to amend any of the articles or add a new article to the declaration? ‘CRIME AGAINST THE HUMANITY’, means that the acts of persecution or any large-scale atrocities against a body of people, as being the criminal offense above all others. Human rights are international norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal and social abuses. The right to freedom of religion, the right to a fair trial when charged with crime, the right not to be tortured, and the right to engage in political activity are the fundamental human rights. The rights exist in morality and in law at the national and international levels. The main sources of the contemporary conception of human rights are the Universal declaration of Human rights, the treaties that followed in international organizations such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organization of American States, and the African Union. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets out number of human rights that countries should respect and protect, which are normally divided into six. They are Security rights that protect people against abuses of the legal system such as imprisonment without trial, secret trials and excessive punishments, liberty, rights that protect the liberty...
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...PLEA TO FLEE: THE FEDERAL SEARCH FOR PRISON ESCAPEES Luis Delfin & Daniel Antoun 25/8/1944 Soldiers and guards are frantically searching with lethal equipment, for the Japanese prisoners that managed to escape. Shortly after midnight on 5 August 1944, an unauthorised bugle call suddenly blasts out across the Cowra Prisoner of War Camp in outback NSW. The bugler is Sergeant Hajime Toyoshima, the first Japanese soldier ever to be captured in Australia, and he was signalling his comrades to launch a mass prison breakout like the world has never seen. One guard accounts that, “Hundreds of Japanese Prisoners of War were armed with household items such as baseball bats, studded clubs and sharpened kitchen knives surged.” These items were supplied from their prison huts. Some raced directly to the perimeter fences, using blankets and T-shirts to haul themselves over the barbed wire (shown in Figure A). Figure A The guards fired at the men, which left hundreds of bodies lined at the fence. Many other Japanese attempted or committed suicide. Some set fire to their huts; some are incinerated inside the burning buildings. A total of 334 Japanese POWs successfully escape into the countryside. Within nine days of the breakout, all surviving escapees were re-captured. In the end, 231 Japanese POWs died in the escape, 31 of them committed suicide. Four men of the Australian 22nd Garrison Battalion were killed. Nelly Gould, a member of the AWAS says that, “Looking...
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...The Purpose of War and Its Effects Time and time again, Americans are told how necessary and essential war is by their government. While Americans sacrifice their lives for the United States, so are citizens of other countries. But, also individuals are telling everyone how inhumane war. The fact of the matter is war always seems to be a repeating factor in life. Whether people try to justify war or not, there are many reasons and circumstance that are ignored and hidden. War could be defined as a nation’s means for protection. Many could probably say war is a nations way of showing off, but clearly everyone has their own opinion. Protection is also a very broad way of describing a reason to go to war. Protection from what exactly is the question to ask. Protection is rarely the substantial reason as to why a nation is going to war. In many cases though, countries do need protection and can not sustain by themselves. Case and point to the previous argument would be, the Invasion of Panama. A topic, dealing with war, which is very taboo, is how the soldier is affected. Many have mentioned the topic of the soldiers’ state of mind, but who is actually listening? The government is supposed to care, but war seems to be a constant. Soldiers are supposed to be studied and evaluated, but ultimately, soldiers are not truly cared for. That fact that soldiers are sent over to a foreign land, to kill someone, should be a red flag to any official that the human psyche will...
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...of three judges, two men and one woman, had an unprecedented opportunity to clarify whether rape during internal armed conflict constitutes genocide as well as a crime against humanity. Nongovernmental organizations worked to "engender" the Tribunal while holding accountable the Hutu leaders who orchestrated genocide. The critical 1998 verdict influenced states negotiating improved standards for the prosecution of sexual violence and the creation of a permanent International Criminal Court. "Rape and Genocide in Rwanda" addresses current issues of international law, human rights, women in politics, African Studies, judicial procedure, legal and moral reasoning. RAPE and Genocide IN RWANDA: The ICTR’s Akayesu Verdict CASE OUTLINE I. An Unprecedented Opportunity Glossary and Map II. Prior Responses to Sexual Violence in War A. From “Time Immemorial” to 1948 B. From the 1949 Geneva Conventions to an International Criminal Court III. Genocide In Rwanda A. A Colonial Legacy of Ethnic Division B. Mass Killing, Rape and the 1994 U.N. Withdrawal IV. The U.N. Creates a Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda V. The Trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu Trial Chronology and Key Individuals VI. Issues for Judgment A. Threshold Requirements B. Distinctive Crimes? VII. The ICTR’s Akayesu Verdict A. The Decision and Rationale B. Issues on Appeal Akayesu’s Right to Counsel and an Impartial Tribunal ...
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...The government prevented more mistreatment of prisoners of war very well by issuing multiple laws and charging the accused enemy with murder. Prisoners of war are people who are taken prisoner during a military conflict. There are modern laws pertaining to the treatment of prisoners of war that date back to the middle ages, but the most common source of modern international laws about the prisoners’ treatment is found in the Geneva Convention. Early in the Civil War, the prisons were easily able to hold the numbers of prisoners, partially due to the prisoner exchange agreement. Later, the number of facilities used to hold prisoners was forced to increase. Prisoners of war were treated very poorly in the Civil war, and the public was outraged...
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...It has been more than seventy years since the Nanking atrocity of 1937-38. This event is better known as the “Rape of Nanking” or “Nanking Massacre” (Wakabayashi). Even today, there is no healthy dialogue between the countries of China and Japan in regards to the atrocity that occurred there so long ago. The last time that there were any concessions made in regards to the atrocities in China were during and after World War II. Much of the historiography has been limited due the amount of silence that has been present throughout the world. Because of this, research about the atrocity had just recently begun to surface. Due to this fact, there are many factors that are brought into question when looking specifically at a historical event, especially one that is tied to such brutal emotion. The authors I have chosen each attempt to explain why there has been such a delay in Nanking’s historiography and at the same time attempt to explain what actually occurred there in 1937-38. I selected three books for this paper. The first is The Nanking Atrocity 1937-38 by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. The book was released on the 70th anniversary of the fall of the Chinese city of Nanking to the Japanese army. The perspective offered is by majority non-American with the exception being two contributors. Wakabayashi discusses what lies at the core of bitter disputes over history, wartime victimization, and postwar restitution that hinder healthy Sino-Japanese relations to this day. The Nanking...
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...sent to Japan as comfort women: sex slaves of the Japanese military. ‘Comfort woman’ is a euphemism for a female sexual slave to the Japanese Imperial Army before and during World War II. The Japanese military recruited young and unmarried Asian women to join the military, then sent them to brothels in China and other Asian and Pacific countries in order to “comfort” Japanese soldiers. One of the few surviving Korean comfort women, Soon-duk Kim, gave the following testimony to Sangmie Choi Schellstede, the editor of the book, Comfort Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military: “I was promised a job as a military nurse…[however, the Japan military took us to] a ruined village of Shanghai. Rooms were divided into tiny cubicles. Each of our fifty girls was divided to one of these cubicles. Now this house became a brothel, and we were sex slaves in it” (38). Kim was wounded due to numerous rape. She explained about the horrible remedy she received: “One day our manager gave me packets of black powder to take once a day…[But] after I used it several times, he then told me the powder was made from a leg of a Chinese soldier’s corpse” (38). This experience is not limited to Kim. Approximately 200,000 Korean women suffered as sex slaves of Japan’s military system before and during the World War II. Today, however, not many people remember this event, resulting in maltreatment towards the survivors of Korean comfort women. In the early 20th century, with the intention...
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...Introduction To date, World War II was the world’s worst event in human history. Colonisation is one of the reasons as to why World War II was the most horrific. Many Asian nations such as Korea, Vietnam and the part of China and so on were colonised by the European powers and Japan during World War II. And it had been raging for more than four years. Although several Asian nations were decolonised by the European powers and Japan after World War II, the wounds of the war were too serious; millions of people died and women raped and killed. Survived people still have suffered permanent injury from disease, psychological trauma of the war and social ostracism. Now, today’s Asian cinemas have been portrayed as traumatic memories of military terror to remind the history. This essay shed light on the significance of trauma in both films; The Flowers of War and The White Silk Dress in connection with the history of Korea. The Flowers of War In 1937, Nanking (today more commonly called Nanjing) Massacre was enforced for 6 weeks by Japanese troops. Millions of Chinese people cruelly died regardless of age or sex. It is also called as The Rape of Nanking, because the Japanese troops raped and killed a great number of Chinese women (Chambers 2010). The Chinese movie, the Flowers of War shows the bald historical fact of Nanjing Massacre in 1937. It is a remake of the Chinese novella, 13 Flowers of Nanjing. Then China’s Nationalist party developed friendly relations with the Nazi Germany...
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...Many Australians experienced extreme weight loss during the Changi camp. Weight loss was a severe and universal problem. This was because, the energy required for tiresome labour, largely exceeded caloric intake. The Changi prisoners of war diet was entirely rice-based. Australians received minute portions of vegetables and occasionally meat or fish. Rather they were predominately served small amounts of poor quality rice. This resulted in an endless amount illness, included vitamin B deficiency, beriberi and thiamine deficiency. Painful lower leg neuropathy was especially common with symptoms worsening at night. It became known as ‘electric’ and more ironically ‘happy feet’. Autonomic and myelopathy syndromes were also suffered. It was typically manifested by bladder dysfunction. The list of illness caused by nutritional disease is endless. Many Australian’s suffered tremendously from this during the Changi Prisoners of...
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