Archive for March 3rd, 2012

03/03/2012

Libya – War Crimes Committed … Before NATO’s Eyes

Human Wrongs Watch

On 19 March last year, the UN Security Council decided to intervene militarily in Libya to protect unarmed, civilian citizens. The military intervention, which lasted more than seven months, consisted of continuos air surveillance, raids, reported ground actions and arms provision to the “insurgents” as part of such “protection” to the population of the oil-rich country.

*Displaced people in eastern Libya outside Ajdabiya | Credit:United Nations

But now the UN-mandated commission of inquiry that probed human rights abuses in Libya reported that “crimes against humanity and war crimes” were committed by both the troops loyal to the former ruler, Muammar al-Qadhafi, and the forces that fought to oust him.

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03/03/2012

When a War Crime Is ٍReally a War Crime, … According to Mme. Clinton?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Bill Van Auken, WSWS* – Testifying before a Senate committee Tuesday [1 March], Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad could be branded a “war criminal.”

**Image Source | Wikimedia Commons

“Based on definitions of war criminal and crimes against humanity, there would be an argument to be made that he [Assad] would fit into that category,” Clinton told the Senate panel.

The ratcheting up of Washington’s rhetoric is aimed at winning public support for yet another imperialist intervention in the Middle East, with regime-change once again dressed up as a crusade for human rights. Clinton’s statement, however, begs a question.

How precisely does she determine when armed violence against civilians constitutes a war crime?.

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