WHAT GOOD ARE “WAR CRIME LAWS” IF THEY ARE NOT ENFORCED?

Is the entire world at large subject to collateral damage at the whims of warmongers?

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U.S. soldiers walk into the charred remains of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2015.

Hospitals in war zones — and other civilians institutions including churches, mosques and schools — are protected under Article 4 of the Geneva Conventions. Yet if an institution is considered dual purpose, meaning it is also being used to harbor enemy forces, it loses that protection under international law. What Doctors Without Borders must show is that Kunduz hospital had not lost that right of protection due to the fact the Taliban had not infiltrated it.  The U.S. military personnel responsible for the attack will have to prove it was a military necessity to strike that hospital, and it doesn’t look like they will. So just what will happen here?

The US Secretary of Defense said, “It is confusing and complicated.” It is appearing that every military venture Obama is making is confusing and complicated.  Who is directing him?  He can’t seriously be without someone dictating these irrational orders, can he?  Either way he is the one in the situation room causing all the blunders. Isn’t it time for the Pentagon to take charge and call him out on all the treasonous maneuvers through the Military Code of Justice?

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and former DePaul University law professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, explained that the motive behind the Kunduz Hospital strike will be crucial. “In order for something to be called a war crime it has to be done intentionally,” he said. But the concept of a war crime under the Geneva Conventions can also include gross misconduct or gross negligence.

Bassiouni said. “You are looking at two things here. One is military necessity and the second is proportionality. Was that really militarily necessary? Were these people really posing the type of threat to the U.S. forces who were there in order to necessitate attacking a hospital, violating the principle of neutrality of the hospital, with the potential injuries that could come out to all of the civilians there?”

Three investigations are underway: an internal military investigation headed by U.S. Brigadier Gen. Richard Kim; an investigation led by the Afghan government; an investigation by NATO, both of which the U.S. is participating in. A fourth, impartial investigation is to be launched by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, an international panel designed to help mediate between conflicting parties. However the parties will have to consent to their investigation in order to proceed.

It appears that although Doctors Without Borders have been hit while no such war activity was taking place upon or within their premises, it is highly unlikely that anything will be done other than some form of compensation and a statement calling the entire fiasco collateral damage.

Below are some excerpts from the Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

Notes: (1) [(1) p.586] The following is the text of the Articles concerned:
I. ‘ Legislative measures. ‘
The High Contracting Parties undertake to incorporate the present Convention as part of their national law, to
ensure the prosecution of any act contrary to its provisions, and to enact provisions for the repression, by
criminal penalties or appropriate disciplinary measures, of any breach of the Convention. Within two years after the ratification of this Convention, the High Contracting Parties undertake to communicate to the Swiss Federal Council, for transmission to all signatory or adhering States, the laws and other measures adopted in pursuance of this Article.

II. ‘ Grave violations. ‘

Without prejudice to the provisions of the foregoing Article, grave breaches of the Convention shall be
punished as crimes against the law of nations by the tribunals of any of the High Contracting Parties or by any
international jurisdiction the competence of which has been recognized by them. Grave breaches shall include in particular those which cause death, great human suffering or serious injury to body or health, those which
constitute a grave denial of personal liberty or a derogation from the dignity due to the person or involve
extensive destruction of property, also breaches which by reason of their nature or persistence show a deliberate disregard of this Convention. Each High Contracting Party shall in conformity with the foregoing Article enact suitable provisions for the extradition of any person accused of a grave breach of
this Convention, whom the said High Contracting Party does not bring before its own tribunals.

III. ‘ Superior orders. ‘

The fact that the accused acted in obedience to the orders of a superior or in pursuance of a law or
regulation shall not constitute a valid defence, if the prosecution can show that in view of the circumstances the
accused had reasonable grounds to assume that he was committing a breach of this Convention. In such a case the punishment may nevertheless be mitigated or remitted, if the circumstances justify. Full responsibility shall attach to the person giving the order, even if in giving it he was acting in his official capacity as a servant of the State.

IV. ‘ Safeguards. ‘

The High Contracting Parties undertake not to subject any person accused of a breach of this Convention,
whatever his nationality, to any tribunal of extraordinary jurisdiction. They also agree that they will not apply any
penalty or repressive measure which is more severe than those which are applied to their own nationals, or which is contrary to the general principles of law and humanity. They shall grant any person accused all rights of defence and appeal recognized by common law. The safeguards of proper trial and defence shall not
in any case be less favourable than those provided by Article 95 and the following Articles of the Convention
relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Safeguards of a similar nature shall apply if the accused is charged before any international jurisdiction;

(2) [(1) p.587] The following is the text of this amendment in the ‘ Final Record of the ‘ Diplomatic Conference of
Geneva of 1949, Vol. III, p. 42:

‘ Article A. ‘ — “The High Contracting Parties, in so far as this Convention cannot be otherwise implemented,
undertake to enact in accordance with their respective Constitutions, legislation to provide effective penalties
for persons committing or ordering to be committed any of the grave breaches defined in the following Article.
Each Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed or to have
ordered to be committed any of the above-mentioned grave breaches and shall, regardless of their nationality, bring before its own courts all persons committing or ordering to be committed such grave breaches, or if it prefers, and provided that a prima facie case has [p.587] been made out by another High Contracting Party concerned, hand them over for trial to such Contracting Party. Each High Contracting Party shall take measures
necessary for the repression of all acts contrary to the provisions of the present Convention other than the
above-mentioned grave breaches.”

‘ Article B. ‘ — “Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of
the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the Convention:

‘ Wounded and Sick Convention. ‘ The wilful killing, torture or maltreatment, including biological experiments,
the wilful causing of great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and the extensive destruction of property,
not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.

Click to read the entire Geneva Convention Documents: https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/COM/380-600168?OpenDocument

The United States has it’s own Code of Enforcement for war crimes. Listed below are excerpts.

18 U.S. Code § 2441 – War crimes

(a)Offense.—

Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.

(b)Circumstances.—

The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are that the person committing such war crime or the victim of such war crime is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act).

(c)Definition.—As used in this section the term “war crime” means any conduct—

        (1) defined as a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva             12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a
        party;
       (2) prohibited by Article 23, 25, 27, or 28 of the Annex to the Hague Convention IV,
        Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed 18 October 1907;
       (3) which constitutes a grave breach of common Article 3 (as defined in subsection (d))
        when committed in the context of and in association with an armed conflict not of an
        international character; or
        (4) of a person who, in relation to an armed conflict and contrary to the provisions of the
        Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other
        Devices as amended at Geneva on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 May 1996),
        when the United States is a party to such Protocol, willfully kills or causes serious injury
        to civilians.

(d)Common Article 3 Violations.—

        (1)Prohibited conduct.—In subsection (c)(3), the term “grave breach of common Article
         3” means any conduct (such conduct constituting a grave breach of common Article 3 of
         the international conventions done at Geneva August 12, 1949), as follows:

(A)Torture.—

The act of a person who commits, or conspires or attempts to commit, an act specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control for the purpose of obtaining information or a confession, punishment, intimidation, coercion, or any reason based on discrimination of any kind.

(B)Cruel or inhuman treatment.—

The act of a person who commits, or conspires or attempts to commit, an act intended to inflict severe or serious physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions), including serious physical abuse, upon another within his custody or control.

(C)Performing biological experiments.—

The act of a person who subjects, or conspires or attempts to subject, one or more persons within his custody or physical control to biological experiments without a legitimate medical or dental purpose and in so doing endangers the body or health of such person or persons.

 (D)Murder.—

The act of a person who intentionally kills, or conspires or attempts to kill, or kills whether intentionally or unintentionally in the course of committing any other offense under this subsection, one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause.

(E)Mutilation or maiming.—

The act of a person who intentionally injures, or conspires or attempts to injure, or injures whether intentionally or unintentionally in the course of committing any other offense under this subsection, one or more persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including those placed out of combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, by disfiguring the person or persons by any mutilation thereof or by permanently disabling any member, limb, or organ of his body, without any legitimate medical or dental purpose.

(F)Intentionally causing serious bodily injury.—

The act of a person who intentionally causes, or conspires or attempts to cause, serious bodily injury to one or more persons, including lawful combatants, in violation of the law of war.
Please read more of the US Code of laws and implications to collateral damages here:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2441
Dianne Marshall
 

By Dianne Marshall

I don't sleep I write! Author, Graphic Artist, Researcher and lover of the truth.

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