True Colors of Hypocrisy Can Never Be Covered Up

 

At the recent 50th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, an urgent discussion was held about the human rights situation of Afghan women and girls.

At the meeting, some countries including China, Russia and Venezuela maintained that the U.S. and the Western countries are chiefly responsible for massacring many civilians and for reducing tens of thousands of people including women and girls into refugees.

Also many countries strongly demanded that the U.S. and the West immediately withdraw their unilateral coercive measures including the freezing of billions of dollar fund of the Afghan government, as they inflict damage to the territorial integrity and the economic development of this country.

However, the U.S. and the Western countries including the U.K. said that there can be no political solution unless the rights of Afghan women and girls are respected. And they forced the Afghan government to fulfill its duty stipulated in the international human rights law, shifting their responsibility to it.

Indeed, this can't but be an impudent act.

Even today, the international society vividly remembers the massacre of the civilians committed by the U.S. and the West behind the signboard of “counter-terrorism” after its invasion of Afghanistan.

Due to the barbaric bombing raids of the U.S., 200-odd women and children were killed in a village near Jalalabad in October 2001, and 93 children and 140-odd villagers lost their lives in villages near Bala Boluk, Farah in 2009.

A great number of innocent peaceful residents fell victim to the reckless military operations by the U.S. and the West; in July 2002, over 40 residents including the bride, bridegroom and 25 members of their family were bombed to death in a wedding hall in Urozgan.

Owing to the 20-year-long invasion of the U.S. and the West launched behind the screen of “counter-terrorism”, as many as 241,000 people including thousands of women and children lost their lives, more than 11 million people have become refugees, and 32 million people are suffering from abject poverty in this country.

Article 7 of the “Rome Statute” of the International Criminal Court stipulated that “‘crime against humanity’ means the acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population”. Article 4 of the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” stipulated that “persons committing genocide shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals”.

However, far from seriously reflecting on and atoning for the gravest crime against humanity, the U.S. rather imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court which adopted a resolution to conduct a full investigation into the criminal acts committed by the U.S. troops in Afghanistan. This has evoked indignation and denunciation from many countries and people.

All the above facts vividly show that the U.S. and the West are entirely responsible for genocide, destruction and the present socio-economic instability in Afghanistan.

Today the U.S. and the West-the self-proclaimed “advanced states of human rights”-are making a fuss about “safeguarding human rights”, “democracy” and “observance of international law” in the international arena. But their hypocritical colors as the criminal states against humanity can never be covered up.

The international society should wake up to the deceptive maneuvers of the U.S. and the West, and resolutely carry out the struggle to bring those responsible for crimes against humanity to the court of justice.

Kim In Guk

Researcher of Korean Association for Human Rights Studies