{"id":118974,"date":"2018-09-24T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=118974"},"modified":"2018-09-20T15:58:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T14:58:35","slug":"human-rights-humanitarian-law-genocide-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/09\/human-rights-humanitarian-law-genocide-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights & Humanitarian Law: Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Genocide – <\/strong>November 1967<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Jean Paul Sartre<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n

Jean Paul Sartre’s Statement at the Second\u00a0 Session of the Bertrand Russell International War Crimes Tribunal on Vietnam held in Denmark in November 1967 remains, almost 40 years later, an inspiring appeal to the conscience of humanity – inspiring not only because of\u00a0 the force of its reason but also because it reveals Sartre’s passionate commitment to justice.\u00a0 Jean Paul Sartre was no arm chair intellectual.<\/a> During the Second World War, he was a key figure among\u00a0the French intellectuals who resisted the Nazi occupation and spent one year as a prisoner of war in German camps. Sartre was an existentialist. He recognized ‘personal subjective experience as the foundation upon which abstract knowledge is built.’<\/p>\n

Sartre’s\u00a0testimony before the Vietnam War Crimes Tribunal, compelled many\u00a0 to re examine their own stand on genocide – “because, little by little, this genocidal blackmail is\u00a0spreading to all humanity, adding to the blackmail of atomic war. This\u00a0crime is perpetrated under our eyes every day, making accomplices out\u00a0of those who do not denounce it.” The continuing genocide of the Tamil people<\/a> by the Sri Lanka armed forces is a modern day example which serves to illustrate the truth of Sartre’s assessment:<\/p>\n

“Against partisans backed by the entire population, colonial\u00a0armies are helpless. They have only one way of escaping from the\u00a0harassment which demoralizes them ….\u00a0This is to eliminate the civilian population. As it is the unity of a\u00a0whole people that is containing the conventional army, the only\u00a0anti-guerrilla strategy which will be effective is the destruction of\u00a0that people, in other words, the civilians, women and children…”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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See Also<\/em> – Vietnam: American Holocaust – Bombing Vietnam at Youtube<\/a><\/p>\n

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The word \u2018genocide\u2019 has not been in existence for very long: it was\u00a0the jurist Lemkin who coined it between the two world wars. The thing\u00a0itself is as old as humanity and there has never been a society whose\u00a0structure has preserved it from committing this crime.<\/p>\n

All genocide is\u00a0a product of history and it always carries the signs of the society\u00a0from which it springs.<\/strong> The case which we have to judge concerns the\u00a0largest contemporary capitalist power. It is as such that we must\u00a0attempt to consider it; in other words, inasmuch as it expresses the\u00a0economic structure, the political aims and the contradictions of that\u00a0power.<\/p>\n

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In particular, we must try to understand whether there is an\u00a0intention of genocide in the war that the American government is\u00a0fighting against Vietnam. Article 2 of the Convention of 1948 defines\u00a0genocide on the basis of intention. The Convention was tacitly\u00a0referring to very recent history. Hitler had declared a deliberate\u00a0plan to exterminate the Jews; he did not conceal the fact that he was\u00a0using genocide as a political tactic. The Jew had to be put to death,\u00a0wherever he came from, not because he had taken up arms or had joined\u00a0a resistance movement, but just because he was a Jew.<\/p>\n

The American\u00a0government, on the other hand, has made no such clear declarations. It\u00a0even averred that it was going to the rescue of its allies, the South\u00a0Vietnamese, who had been attacked by the Communists from the North. Is\u00a0it possible for us, in objectively studying the facts, to unveil their\u00a0hidden intention? And can we, after this examination, say that the\u00a0armed forces of the USA are killing\u00a0Vietnamese in Vietnam for the simple reason that they are Vietnamese?<\/p>\n

This can only be established after a look at history: the\u00a0structures of war change at the same time as those of society. From\u00a01860 to this day, military motives and objectives have undergone a\u00a0profound change and the end\u00a0result of this metamorphosis is precisely the war of \u2018example\u2019 that\u00a0the USA is waging in Vietnam.<\/p>\n