Clinton: Assad fits "war criminal" definition
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Foreign Operations and related programs on Capitol Hill Feb. 28, 2012. / Mark Wilson
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says Syria's President Bashar Assad fits the definition of a war criminal.
Clinton was testifying Tuesday before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the budget for the State Department and foreign operations. She was pressed by Sen. Lindsey Graham about Syria.
Asked if Assad is a war criminal, Clinton said he would fit into that category. She stopped short of saying the international community should make that designation and level charges, pointing out that such a step often makes it difficult for a leader to step down.
Graham and a few other Republican senators have suggested arming the rebels challenging Assad.
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Meanwhile, members of the United Nations held an emergency meeting on the crisis in Geneva. The U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe said Tuesday that "well over" 7,500 people have died in Syria violence and that there are "credible" reports that more than 100 civilians are dying in the country daily. Activists groups said Monday that the death toll for 11 months of unrest has now surpassed 8,000 people.
"Unfortunately, the international community has also failed in its duty to stop the carnage, and actions and inactions to date have seemed to encourage the regime in its believe that it has impunity to carry out the wanton destruction of its own civilians," Pascoe said.
Members of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council are expected to pass a resolution this week condemning "widespread and systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities."
A draft text supported by many Arab and Western nations says the Syrian regime's use of heavy artillery and tanks to attack civilian areas has contributed to the deaths of thousands.
Libya's Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib said he supported passing a firm resolution on Syria in the council.
"We hope that the Syrian people will have the same freedom and victory soon as the Libyan people are enjoying right now," he said.
Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, cited the report of a U.N. expert panel that concluded Syrian government officials were responsible for "crimes against humanity" committed by security forces against opposition members. The crimes included shelling civilians, executing deserters and torturing detainees. Some opposition groups, too, had committed gross abuses, the report said.
The panel has compiled a confidential list of top-level Syrian officials who could face prosecution over the atrocities.
Pillay reiterated her call for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court "in the face of the unspeakable violations that take place every moment."
"More than at any other time, those committing atrocities in Syria have to understand that the international community will not stand by and watch this carnage and that their decisions and the actions they take today ultimately will not go unpunished," she said.
Several countries backed her call for Syria to be referred to the ICC, a proposition made difficult by the fact that Syria's longtime ally Russia holds a veto in the U.N. Security Council, where such a move would have to be approved.
Esther Brimmer, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, told reporters that while it was up to the Syrian people to decide how to try those responsible for atrocities in Syria, the international community could assist by collecting evidence for future prosecutions.
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If those crimes are left out, then it makes a joke of the whole international law thing a joke and lowers it to the level of a lynching of the losers in war and foreign policy.
"Bush is not a war criminal"??? - Pre-emptive war on a sovereign state on false pretences. Torture
"We don't target innocent civilians"???
This is done on a DAILY basis in Afghanistan.
see also http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
"We never targeted any one who didn't have it coming."???
Daily in Afpak or try this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15909051
"Unprovoked wars? Are you kidding?"????
The war in Iraq was unprovoked. The war in Iran will be unprovoked. There is no evidence of nukes (like Iraq). Iran has never attacked anyone (Unlike Iraq)
A victim of FOX news I perceive.
Reagan helped the governments of El Salvador and Nicaragua terrorise their populations and slaughter tens of thousands while the CIA placed mines in Nicaragua's harbors.
Hitler was defined as a war criminal for relocating and exterminating the Jews. No one lists Andrew Jackson as a war criminal for doing exactly the same thing with the American Indian. No one lists James Polk as a war criminal even though he conspired and plotted the invasion of Mexico and the theft of about 50% of its national territory.
Before accusing others of being war criminals, it would be most honourable to admit that the United States is historically the most corrupt nation on the earth.
Bush targeted Iraq, a country that was not involved in 9/11, had no ''Weapons of Mass Destruction" and even if it did, the CIA director was forced to admit at the time they would never dare use them against us because Saddam and every other world leader knows we have THOUSANDS of nukes to retaliate with.
Bush and top cabinet officials also authorized torture at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Air Base, black sites throughout the world, and even outsourced torture to SYRIA among others, all in violation of the Geneva Convention and mostly against the INNOCENT--the Army's own report on Abu Ghraib found 60% of those tortured there were no threat to society.
The British Medical Journal the Lancet also found 600,000 to over a million Iraqi casualties in the first five years of the Iraq War. As bad as Saddam was, he only managed to kill 100,000 of his own people in the ten years before the 2003 war.
I'm all for prosecuting war criminals as long as it is done honestly. Going after Syria while leaving Bush & Cheney alone is like prosecuting someone for a bar fight but ignore Jeffrey Dahmer barbecuing his victims.
The rest of the world will be happy when the USA starts walking the walk, not just talking the talk.
There is no statute of limitations in the Geneva Conventions. Former Serbian President Slobidan Milosevich learned that at the Hague. The Israelis may be confident today any counterstrike at Iran is justified, but the obvious lack of progress with Palestinian Nationhood and the 'ethnic cleansing' of occupied territory will not stand.
War Criminals? Yep, we got them. One of those is an esteemed retired professor and former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger for his approval of the CIA murder of the Chief of the Armed Forces of Chile under Allende. This was the initiating act of the revolt and installation of General Pinochet and military rule. Remember him? Our President at the time was Richard Nixon, foremost in promoting the China policy which seated Communist China at the UN Security Council and ousted Nationalist China.