[Nettime-bold] Axis of Evil (revisited)

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

Iraq, North Korea, Libya, China and Israel are joined by the U.S. in 
being the only countries opposed to formation of the International 
Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. George W. Bush 
stands shoulder to shoulder with Saddam Hussein in this hall of 
shame.

Slobodan Milosevic sincerely believes that he is not responsible for 
his deeds, that he had no trouble demanding to be vigorously 
carried out by his underlings. He, instead, maintains that both 
those who supported and those who opposed him are responsible, 
because they either let him, or left him with no other choice. He 
simply refuses to be held accountable for anything that he did.

That infantile, sociopathic position is shared by John Negroponte, 
the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and his superiors in 
their threat to shut down peacekeeping operations in Bosnia with a 
rare Security Council veto if they are not given what they want: the 
immunity for U.S. servicemen from the world's first permanent war 
crimes tribunal, due to come into existence on July 1.
(http://news.attbusiness.net/articles/D7KE60900.html)

Why would the U.S. need or want such shameful immunity? Does 
U.S. administration believe that they are above the international 
law? What is it so horrible they are hiding, that they are ready to 
risk the renewal of ethnic hostility in a war ravaged small European 
country in order to protect it?

Kenneth Nichols, an ex-US Marine, will burn his U.S. passport in 
front of the U.S. Consulate in Amsterdam on July 1, in a symbolic 
renunciation of U.S. citizenship, in what appears to be the first 
such act in history for a birth citizen of the United States. He is 
currently seeking political asylum in Holland, the country 
threatened by the U.S. Hague Invasion Act. Nichols is accusing 
the U.S. of grave violations of human rights, particularly in 
connection with the deliberate use of DU in the Gulf War (in which 
he was a combatant), despite the knowledge of the damage it 
causes, and in connection with the use of experimental drugs on 
military personel without informed consent (of which Nichols is a 
victim himself, losing ability to produce children).
Related web sites:
http://www.ohre.doe.gov
http://www.web-light.nl/VISE/extremedeformities.html
http://www.deepecology1.com/

Is this a nightmare the U.S. government lawyers want to protect 
their clients from? But what is going to happen to international 
justice if politicians from rich and powerful nations are allowed to go 
unpunished for their deeds, while only those from small, 'rogue' 
nations are held accountable?

Ivo Skoric

 

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