Title: Why Genocide? - TheHumanist.com
Headings: Why Genocide?
Why Genocide?
Content: Why Genocide? - TheHumanist.com
Why Genocide? Over the past fifteen years United Nations tribunals have addressed genocide issues associated with conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur. The most recent development in this connection is the arrest on July 18, 2008, of Radovan Karadžić, a man who had been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on charges that he, “acting individually between 1 July 1991 and 19 July 1996, or in concert with others,” committed acts of “genocide; crimes against humanity; violations of the laws or customs of war and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.” Four days before this, on July 14, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court pursued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir on ten counts of “genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes” allegedly committed in Darfur since July 1, 2002. That such legal actions can prove effective is demonstrated not only by the media publicity generated worldwide but by a recent track record of prosecutorial success. For example, Jean Kambanda was sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and related crimes committed while he was prime minister of Rwanda in 1994. This action was taken by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on September 4, 1998.