ZGram - 2/22/02 - "Geneva Convetion - Outdated?"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2002 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

February 22, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Read this from today's Independent!

The Geneva Convention rules are now being conveniently changed - or will they?

[START]

The Geneva  Conventions  are outdated  and need to be  rewritten to  deal
with the  threat of  international  terrorism, the  United States
ambassador for  war crimes said  yesterday.

  The forthright  views of Pierre-Richard Prosper, who was  personally
appointed by President Bush, will fuel  the controversy over the treatment
of Afghan  detainees by America. His remarks, in an interview  with The
Independent, represent the first time a  senior figure in the Bush
administration has spoken  so unambiguously about an overhaul of the
conventions. They reflect  Washington's exasperation at criticism by
Western  allies and international organisations of its  treatment of
prisoners at Camp X-Ray on Cuba.

  The Geneva Conventions have tempered some of  the worst excesses of
modern warfare, and  attempts to tamper with them are bound to lead to
opposition. However, there is a growing feeling in  the administration that
the present form of the  conventions, signed in 1949, does not take into
account the new type of conflict in which  individuals and organisations,
such as al-Qa'ida,  rather than states, wage war.

  "We should look at all international documents to  see whether they are
compatible with this moment  in history. We should look at them now, and
look at  them again in the future, in 20 years' time, in 50  years' time,"
Mr Prosper said.

  "The war on terror is a new type of war not  envisaged when the Geneva
Conventions were  negotiated and signed. We now have  organisations that
... do not conduct their  operations in accordance with the laws and
customs of war."

  The ambassador stressed that the Geneva  Conventions remained relevant
for wars between  sovereign states. Difficulties had only arisen when  they
had been applied to international terrorism.

  Mr Prosper, the son of Haitian immigrants, is a  respected jurist who
successfully prosecuted the  first case under the 1948 Genocide Convention
at  the Rwanda war crimes tribunal. He is in Europe to  defend American
policy towards its Afghan  prisoners, and met Foreign Office officials
yesterday.

  Washington's position on the prisoners has been  inconsistent. After
initially declaring that none was  entitled to the protection of the
conventions,  President Bush said this month that Taliban  prisoners fell
under Geneva but al-Qa'ida prisoners  would not. He later added to the
confusion by  saying that Taliban prisoners would not have PoW  status but
would be treated as "unlawful  combatants".

  But Mr Prosper said yesterday: "Analysis of the  Geneva Conventions leads
us to the conclusion  that the Taliban detainees do not meet the legal
criteria under Article 4."

  He stressed that the prisoners, whom he had  visited, were being well
looked after and some of  the privileges of the Geneva Conventions had
been extended to them.

[END]

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Zundelsite comment:

Rather than attempting to change an international convention, would it not
be simpler, cheaper and more civilized and ethical to live up to its rules?
What is it that the Geneva Convention forbids?  Sharon will be pleased with
this move - another 9/11 bonus for the Israelis for their brutal treatment
of the Palestinians!

Changing the rules of the game won't prevent terrorism.  It will merely
allow state terrorism to fight resistance terrorism.

Also, consider this:  The Allied nations trained and financed terrorists.
Only they weren't called "terrorists" - they had noble names such as
"guerrillas" or, better yet, "resistance fighters".  Certainly during World
War II, their use was against similar rules of civilized warfare.  Did the
Soviet partisans, Tito's killers, or the French Resistance "conduct their
operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war"?  No, they
sneaked up on civilians, often in civilian clothes, and brutally mutilated
and murdered them!

The Internet is rife with stories of torture of Irish Republican guerrillas
by "Her Majesty's torturers in the 1970s.  The Geneva Convention was then
in place!

And, finally, the Geneva Convention expects access to all prisoners by such
organizations as the Red Cross - not only those select few who may have
been "visited" after they were cleaned up and prepared for such a public
relations "visit".  That's why the Red Cross has a policy of doing spot
checks.  Even Auschwitz and Dachau had visiting inspectors from the
International Red Cross in World War II - who gave the Germans a clean bill
of health because they could not find those rumored "gas chambers"!  If you
doubt that, write to the International Red Cross, 9 Ave de la Paix, Geneva,
Switzerland and ask for their 140 page, 1945 report of those visits to
German concentration camps!

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Thought for the Day:

"It is my living sentiment, and by the grace of God it shall be my dying
sentiment:  Independence now and Independence forever!"

(Daniel Webster)