The last century was an extremely bloody one filled with statistically efficient genocide as mankind’s hatred for one another based on differences, religion, etc. met industrial and organizational advancement and technological progress head on.
One of the most horrific episodes of the century (and really one of the worst of the human race’s violent history) was the Cambodian genocide which occurred when the Khmer Rouge ran the country from 1975 to 1979. The sheer ruthless bloodthirstiness coupled with the absolute crazy meaningless ideology behind it which included turning children into killers and murdering anyone who wore glasses or who had a college education wasn’t communism and didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense unless you were a paranoid schizophrenic made this one of the darkest chapters in the behavior of humanity.
It is with great interest then that much of the world watches the United Nation tribunal on the atrocities and genocide in Cambodia….However, as one watches the now senior citizens in their 70’s and 80’s who largely make-up the defendants, one is left with the question why didn’t this happen sooner????
Of course, like most dysfunctional parts of recent world history, the United States plays a big role….It was the United States carpet bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War that so destabilized Cambodian society which allowed the Khmer Rouge to take over in the first place….The United States ignored what was going on until the refugee stream got too great and Vietnam finally was forced to invade Cambodia….For a number of years after that, the United States recognized the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate United Nations representative of Cambodia instead of the Vietnam backed government.
There were even rumors that the United States had a connection to the rise of the Khmer Rouge….During Henry Kissinger’s days as National Security Advisor, his office had clandestine contacts with Khmer Rouge representatives….The person in charge of this was Anthony Lake who later went on to be Bill Clinton’s first National Security Advisor….When Lake left that position and was nominated to be CIA Director, his nomination was stymied and had to be withdrawn supposedly because pictures existed which showed him hugging, laughing with, back slapping etc. Pol Pot a man personally responsible for the deaths of more than a million people!
But what further lessens the process of bringing a government or individuals to justice is either using genocide/war crimes/crimes against humanity charges as a weapon in pursuit of a political agenda or ignoring one country’s behavior while criticizing others, in other words a double standard.
Case in point of using crimes against humanity as a political weapon is the recent charge brought by the International Criminal Court against the President of the Sudan, Omar al-Bashir. Let me say that this is total Bullsh*t….I’ve blogged about the Darfur situation before and the history behind it http://www.xanga.com/rgdinmalaysia/668728062/skepticism-about-darfur-more-neo-conservative-hi-jinks/ ….This is nothing more than a CIA operation to destabilize the leadership of this country which has both oil and strategic geographical importance….Ever since oil was discovered, the US through the CIA has funded a rebellion comprised of mostly Christian Sudanese (Muslims are a majority in the Sudan)….To combat this ongoing security issue, the government finally resorted to allowing in bands of militia, bandits basically, and they unfortunately committed atrocities against villagers caught in the crossfire.
Sorry but that’s not genocide, that’s not crimes against humanity….Genocide is the actual attempt to make extinct a group of people who are the same race, religion etc….If this is genocide then what the US did during the Vietnam War is also genocide….Darfur is a gigantic PR scam funded by the CIA and right-wing evangelical groups and unwittingly aided by airhead celebrities….Examine the leadership boards of the main Darfur aid organizations and one can easily connect the dots.
You want to end the violence in Darfur? Tell the CIA to stop funding this covert war of imperialism.
Regarding the double standard issue, I will once again believe in the concept of universal justice for all the day I see an Israeli facing charges before a governing world body.
Now as proof is presented and the real stories come out (since journalists were prevented from entering Gaza), we see that Israel did in fact (as they always do and have done for decades) target civilians including children as part of their ongoing terrorist activities and war of terror against the Palestinian people during the most recent atrocity in Gaza….There are many instances in the recent conflict where Israeli troops opened fire without provocation and without any ongoing battles occurring at the same time in open spaces where identification was clearly possible on adults but also small children.
Israel has still not explained its use of weapons such as phosphorus bombs, nail bombs, etc….These weapons serve no other purpose than terror….If these are not crimes against humanity then nothing is.
It’s very hard to take genocide/war crimes/crimes against humanity prosecutions seriously when Israel gets a free pass….Of course, confronting this issue might force everyone to face the truth which is Israel is in fact a phony nation created by a colonialist mindset of ethnic cleansing.
But I won’t hold my breath to see that prosecuted.
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