Thursday, August 31, 2006

Crimes against Peace

I'm reading a compelling book called Eichmann in Jerusalem. Extremly apt for modern times on many levels not least the Bush administration as totalitarian regime, and the problems of current political systems with their Leviathan soul's which put the power of millions of people into single individuals. However the point i learnt at the end i did no know before concerns Crimes against peace. One hears of crimes against humanity - Rwanda, the Balkans and currently in Dafur, but crimes against peace is not something often put out there. Yet it is an international law inacted at the sametime as the crimes against humanity, both were incoporated at the International Military Tribunal in London in 1946. Article 6 reads: 6(a) Crimes against peace: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing "

"Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan."

The tribunal at the time called it the 'supreme international crime. '
In a world increasingly prone to premptive strikes i am surprised and concerned this ultimate crime is not spoken of more.

State crimes or crimes against peace by the state Messrs Bush and Blair might say using Hannah Arendt's words "are considered emergency measures, concessions made to the stringencies of Realpolitik, in order to preserve power and thus assure the continuance of the exisiting legal order as a whole." But we know that's bollocks right. Diversions from alternatives and finding new ways to live together. nations, politics, laws, religions all are subjective viewpoints none are neutral.

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