Under the cover of 'international justice', a much more direct reflection of the hierarchy of global power is now being set in place, as new Western agencies are given a jurisdiction above international law. The creation of The Hague War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia -- a supposed model for 'international justice' -- is a perfect case in point. Typically, the Serb leader Milan Martic has been indicted for the use of cluster bombs on the Croatian capital Zagreb in May 1995, in which seven civilians were killed and an old people's home and children's hospital damaged. NATO's own use of cluster bombs in its attack on Nis in May 1999, which killed fifteen people and damaged the city's main hospital, was naturally in another category altogether. [23] Who could believe that NATO commanders deliberately made military targets of city bridges, factories, marketplaces, residential neighbourhoods and TV studios, with slight or no military value?
The truth is that the 'impartiality' of the Tribunal is a farce. In brazen breach of Article 16 of the Tribunal's Charter, which states that the prosecutor shall act independently and shall not seek or receive instruction from any government, co-operation between supposedly independent international prosecutors and Western politicians has been close and unconcealed. At a joint press conference with Tribunal prosecutor Louise Arbour, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook declared, with scant grammar and even less regard for legal propriety, that 'we are going to focus on war crimes being committed in Kosovo and our determination to bring those responsible to justice': as if he and Arbour were part of the same team, deciding who would be held responsible for violations of international law-and naturally ruling himself out from potential charges. [24] James Shea, NATO spokesman during the conflict, was blunter still, replying to a question at a press conference on 17 May 1999 as to the possibility of NATO leaders being investigated for war crimes by the Tribunal: 'Impossible. It was the NATO countries who established the Tribunal, who fund it and support it on a daily basis.'
Arbour herself regularly appeared in public at high-profile meetings with NATO leaders, including Cook and Secretary of State Albright, during the Balkan War. One Tribunal judge, Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, has referred to Albright as the 'Mother of the Tribunal'. President Clinton was personally informed of the indictment of Milosevic by Arbour two days before the rest of the world. There have been numerous meetings between the prosecutor and NATO officials, including its Secretary-General, to 'establish contacts and begin discussing modalities of co-operation and assistance' and, in an epic breach of legal norms, NATO-a potential defendant-has been assigned the function of arresting suspects and collecting data. Of course, the Tribunal concerns itself only with the former Yugoslavia. Milosevic is to be handed over to 'international justice' without delay. In other parts of the world Montesinos is assured a comfortable refuge, and Sharon received with full honours.
What the jettisoning of the principle of non-interventionism means is the re-legitimation of the right of the great powers to practice what violence they please. Their apologists declare that war is now the 'lesser evil', compared to the new moral crimes of 'indifference' or 'appeasement'. Liberal interventionists have emerged as the biggest advocates of increased military spending. [25] Sycophantic tub-thumpers like Michael Ignatieff extol without inhibition the new militarist values:
To keep the peace here [Sierra Leone] is to ratify the conquests of evil. It is time to bury peacekeeping before it buries the UN . . . Where peace has to be enforced rather than maintained, what's required are combat-capable warriors under robust rules of engagement, with armour, ammunition and intelligence capability, and a single line of command to a national government or regional alliance . . . the international community has to take sides and do so with crushing force. [26]
Similarly, for Max Boot,
UN administrators . . . think that no problem in the world is too intractable to be solved by negotiation. These mandarins fail to grasp that men with guns do not respect men with nothing but flapping gums . . . Just as the US Marine Corps breeds warriors, so the UN's culture breeds conciliators. [27]
For these ideologues, the absolute end of 'international justice' can only be compromised by diplomacy or negotiation. The new professors of Human Rights at the UN University's Peace and Governance Programme are happy to condone those 'good international citizens' who are 'tempted to go it alone' waging war for 'justice', with or without international sanction. [28] Robertson likewise insists that 'a human rights offensive admits of no half-measures'; 'crimes against humanity are, by definition, unforgivable'; 'justice, in respect of crimes against humanity, is non-negotiable'. [29] Such war can know no legal bounds. Bernard Kouchner, UN Civilian Administrator in Kosovo, argues explicitly for pre-emptive attacks -- or rather, in the Newspeak so characteristic of the West's 'humanitarian' hawks, for the right to intervene militarily 'against war':
Now it is necessary to take the further step of using the right to intervention as a preventive measure, to stop wars before they start and to stop murderers before they kill . . . We knew what was likely to happen in Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo long before they exploded into war. But we didn't act. If these experiences have taught us anything, it is that the time for a decisive evolution in international consciousness has arrived. [30]
The ability to judge 'murderers before they kill' is an art that relies more on self-interest than science. As Benjamin Schwarz warns, at an April 2000 round table on intervention organized by _The Atlantic_:
If we choose to be morality's avenging angel in places like Kosovo, we may at first be pleased to see ourselves, like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness, as 'an emissary of pity and progress'. But as warriors for right, faced with those we have demonized, we may well succumb to Kurtz's conclusions as well: 'Exterminate the brutes.' [31]
In the Middle East, in Africa and the Balkans, the exercise of 'international justice' signifies a return to the Westphalian system of open great-power domination over states which are too weak to prevent external claims against them.
... [23] R. M. Hayden, _UN War Crimes Tribunal Delivers a Travesty of Justice_, Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, 2000; C. Black and E. Herman, 'Louise Arbour: Unindicted War Criminal', posted to Tribunal Watch, 17 February 2000. Archive available at www.listserve.acsu.buffalo.edu/archives/justwatch-l.html
[24] 'Louise Arbour: Unindicted War Criminal'.
[25] For example, John Gray, 'Crushing Hatreds', _Guardian_, 28 March 2000; John Lloyd, 'Prepare for a Brave New World', _New Statesman_, 19 April 1999.
[26] Michael Ignatieff, 'A Bungling UN Undermines Itself', _New York Times_, 15 May 2000.
[27] 'Paving the Road to Hell'.
[28] See, for example, _Kosovo and the Challenge of Humanitarian Intervention_.
[29] _Crimes Against Humanity_, pp. 73, 260, 268.
[30] Bernard Kouchner, 'Perspective on World Politics: Establish a Right to Intervene Against War', _Los Angeles Times_, 18 October 1999.
[31] Benjamin Schwarz, _Atlantic_ Round Table on Intervention, April 2000, available from www.theatlantic.com/unbound/roundtable/goodfight/schwarz3.htm
(David Chandler, "'International Justice,'" _New Left Review_ 6 [November-December 2000], <http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR24003.shtml>) ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>